Adani group denounces “baseless” fraud and corruption accusations in New York

The Indian group Adani on Thursday denied allegations of corruption and fraud made by American authorities against the group’s chairman, Gautam Adani, saying that all these assertions were “baseless”.

Shares of Indian Adani Group companies plunged after Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest people, was indicted in a New York federal court on alleged corruption and fraud charges. Shares of Adani Green Energy, the company at the center of the allegations, fell 17.9%.

Adani and several other defendants are accused of paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain solar power supply contracts worth more than $2 billion of profits.

The company’s 62-year-old chairman, his nephew Sagar Adani, and fellow company executive Vneet Jaain are accused of misleading U.S. and international investors about their company’s compliance with practices anti-corruption when they had raised more than $3 billion in capital to finance energy contracts. .

An Adani Group spokesperson said the allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against the directors of Adani Green Energy were “baseless and denied”.

“The Adani Group has always respected and is firmly committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency and regulatory compliance in all jurisdictions in which it operates. We assure our stakeholders, partners and employees that we are a law-abiding organization, fully compliant with all laws,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

They added that “all possible legal remedies will be sought” following the allegations.

Shares of Adani investor GQG Partners also fell about 20% on Thursday.

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-CNBC Boon Ping and Dan Mangan contributed to this story.