Allegations of corruption and fraud against Adani at home and abroad

Last Updated on November 24, 2024 5:48 am

Adani Group Chairman and India’s richest industrialist Gautam Adani has been accused of offering to bribe government officials to get a quote for the country’s solar power project. But this is not the first time. This Gujarati native, known as a close associate of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, has been accused of corruption several times in the past year.

On January 24 last year, the American company ‘Hindenburg Research’ first accused the Adani Group of stock fraud. They published a report on this. In it, the relevant company mentioned that Gautam Adani had inflated the share prices of various companies.

As soon as the Hindenburg Research report was published, the stock prices of all the Adani companies started falling sharply. In an instant, their 10,000 crore rupees disappeared from the stock market. Gautam Adani fell several places down in the list of the world’s richest people.

Based on the allegations made by the US company, a case was filed in the Supreme Court of India on March 1 last year. The Supreme Court ordered a three-member committee to investigate it. It was headed by retired Justice AM Sapre. The other two are KV Kamat and Nandan Nilekani. The Supreme Court also asked the stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), to conduct a separate investigation.

The Sapre Committee submitted its report to the Supreme Court on May 8, 2023. It stated that there was no evidence of inflating the share price. Gradually, the prices of Adani group companies started rising in the stock market. Gautam Adani also breathed a sigh of relief.

After that, SEBI also submitted its investigation report to the Supreme Court. The central agency said that 22 final and two interim investigations have been conducted on the stocks of the Adani group. SEBI also said that information is being collected about foreign investors who invested in the shares of the Adani group. Nowhere in the report did they mention industrialist Adani’s company as ‘corrupt’.

The date of submission of SEBI’s report to the Supreme Court was August 25, 2023. At that time, the American government agency ‘Development Finance Corporation’ was investigating this issue. Industrialist Adani got a clean sheet there too. The US investigative agency stated that the allegations made by Hindenburg Research against his company ‘Adani Ports’ were baseless.

On December 5, 2023, the American ‘Development Finance Corporation’ gave a clean sheet to the Adanis. They were able to withdraw the entire amount of the loss from the market by June this year. On the other hand, SEBI issued a notice to Hindenburg Research for violating Indian laws. The American company admitted to receiving that notice on July 2 this year.

But then in August, Hindenburg Research exploded a new bombshell. This American company claims that SEBI Chairman Madhavi Puri Butch is behind the transfer of Adani’s money. They also posted about this on X Handle (formerly Twitter). As a result, the controversy started again. Butch was under investigation.

However, Adani did not suffer any significant business losses due to Hindenburg’s accusation against the SEBI chief. This year, the industrial group was supposed to acquire the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. But last October, a local court in the country issued a temporary stay on the implementation of that agreement. As a result, Gautam Adani’s business in the East African country suffered a setback.

If the agreement with Kenya was implemented, the Indian industrial group would have owned the Nairobi International Airport for the next 30 years. However, East African aviation workers claim that the Kenyan government wants to completely hand over this one of the largest and most important airports in the country to a private company.

In this regard, the country’s labor union has said that many Kenyan workers will lose their jobs as a result of the agreement with Adani. This will increase the opportunities for foreign workers to join the workforce.

On the other hand, the Kenyan government has opened up about the issue. They claim that the airport is not being sold. Not only that, but no final decision has been taken on the airport renovation agreement. It is actually a public-private joint venture. Who will be responsible for maintaining the airport is also not final. The Kenyan government had signed a contract with Adani Airport for a period of 30 years worth Tk 15,526 crore.

In October this year, after the airport, the Kenyan court also issued a stay order on the Adani Group’s power project. The state-owned company of the East African country was supposed to develop a power infrastructure project in a joint venture with ‘Adani Energy Solutions.’ But the court’s verdict hit that agreement.

The Adani Group had an agreement with the ‘Kenya Electrical Transmission Company’ (Ketraco). The East African country’s government had agreed to pay Adani Energy $736 million for this project. The Adani Group was supposed to build a ‘transmission line’ as part of the infrastructure project. The court’s ruling is believed to have gone into cold storage indefinitely.

The Kenya Law Society approached the court regarding the agreement between Ketraco and the Adani group. They alleged that the terms of the agreement were in violation of the constitutional rights of the workers. In addition, it was also claimed that it was vitiated by secrecy for various reasons. The Kenyan High Court announced the verdict in the case on October 26 this year.

As soon as the Kenyan incident was over, allegations of financial fraud were again made against the industrial group. Gautam Adani has been accused of offering a bribe of Rs 2,237 crore to government officials for a solar power project in the country. There are also similar allegations against his company ‘Adani Green Energy’ board member and nephew Sagar Adani and CEO Vineet Jain.

An arrest warrant has been issued against the Adanis in this incident. The list of accused includes Ranjit Gupta, Rupesh Agarwal, Australian and French citizens Cyril Cabanes, Saurav Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra.

It is worth noting that industrialist Adani posted on social media congratulating Donald Trump on his election as president. Not only that, he also announced huge investments in renewable energy in the United States. But then, due to allegations of financial fraud, Adani Green Energy withdrew its decision to issue bonds in the American market.