In addition to being charged in a civil action brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, and Jaain were charged with securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and wire fraud conspiracy.
US authorities accused the billionaire boss of the Indian conglomerate of a bribery and fraud conspiracy, causing shares of Adani Group firms to drop almost $22 billion in market value in early trading on Thursday.
Adani Enterprises, the main business of Gautam Adani, saw a 10% decline, while Adani Ports, Adani Total Gas, Adani Green, Adani Power, Adani Wilmar and Adani Energy Solutions, ACC, Ambuja Cements, and NDTV saw declines of 8% to 20%.
At 0411 GMT, the market capitalization of the ten listed equities of the Adani group was approximately $147 billion, down from $169.08 billion on Tuesday.
According to US investigators, Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, planned to bribe Indian government officials with around $265 million in order to secure contracts that would generate $2 billion in profit over the course of 20 years and build India’s largest solar power plant project.
In a statement released on Thursday, Adani Green announced that board members Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani were the subject of a criminal indictment by the US Justice Department and a civil action by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Overuse of tax havens
According to the US Justice Department, Vneet Jaain, a board member of Adani Green, was also named in the criminal charge.
Due to developments, Adani Green’s units had opted not to move forward with the proposed bond offers denominated in US dollars, the statement continued.
The charge was made over two years after US shortseller Hindenburg Research accused Adani of engaging in stock manipulation and inappropriately using tax havens, both of which the conglomerate denied.
Adani dollar bonds also fell during Thursday’s early Asian trading, with prices for Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone bonds falling 3–5 cents. The declines were the biggest since a short-seller onslaught on the Adani Group in February 2023.
