The leader of the Indian opposition Rahul Gandhi demanded Thursday, November 21, the arrest of energy magnate Gautam Adani, indicted for corruption in the United States and whose conglomerate fell on the stock market. Known to be close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gautam Adani, 62, is suspected of being involved in paying bribes to Indian officials to obtain solar energy contracts in India, to the detriment of investors in the United States. “We demand that Adani be stopped immediately. But we know that will not happen because Modi is protecting him,” Rahul Gandhi said at a press conference in New Delhi.
On the Bombay Stock Exchange, the price of the holding company Adani Enterprises lost 23.4% on Thursday. The stock of its subsidiary Adani Energy Solutions, directly targeted by American justice, fell by 20%. Adany Energy Solutions has decided to cancel a planned issuance in the financial markets of bonds denominated in US dollars.
In a press release, the Adani group denied the accusations of the American prosecutor’s office, describing the indictment of its boss and founder as “unfounded”. According to Brooklyn federal prosecutor Breon Peace, the multi-billionaire is accused, along with seven co-defendants, of having participated between 2020 and 2024 in a bribe payment system of more than $250 million. Gautam Adani, one of his nephews at the head of the Adani Green Energy subsidiary, Sagar Adani, and a third manager are also being prosecuted for having hidden “this system of corruption while they sought to raise funds from investors American and international. Gautam Adani was charged with securities fraud and wire fraud.
Proximity with Narendra Modi
According to the prosecution, the suspects “extensively documented their acts of corruption”, notably Sagar Adani with his mobile phone. Gautam Adani “met personally with a representative of the Indian government to implement this corruption plan and the defendants met in person to discuss aspects of its implementation”, accuses the prosecution.
The affair once again throws into trouble the Adani empire, whose activities extend from coal mines and renewable energies to ports, airports and even the media. In India, opposition parties and civil society have long accused the businessman of having taken advantage of his relationship with Narendra Modi, like him from the state of Gujarat (northwest), to build his fortune by winning markets unfairly.
Questioned in October by AFP during a press trip to India, Sagar Adani firmly denied any collusion with the government. “There is no political link” between the group and the government, he insisted. “All the projects we carry out have not been awarded but awarded following an independent and transparent tender system.”
Second fortune of India
In 2023, the Adani Group was also accused of “brazen manipulation” of its own stock prices and “multi-decade accounting fraud” by the American investment company Hindenburg Research. Gautam Adani had rejected these accusations, but his group had seen its stock market value cut by more than 150 billion dollars and his personal fortune melt by 80 billion dollars. The tycoon, second richest in India, according to the 2024 ranking of the American magazine Forbesand his company have since made up for much of those losses.
For several years now, the Adani group has launched a vast offensive on renewable energies, a strategic sector for India – the most populous country in the world and the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. In Gujarat, near the Pakistani border, the group is building, with the French group TotalEnergies, the largest renewable energy park in the world (solar and wind), with an area equal to five times that of Paris.
Born into a middle-class family in Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat, Gautam Adani dropped out of school to work briefly in the diamond industry before starting his trading business in 1988. In 1995, the businessman who was then seeking to diversify its activities and won the contract to build and operate the commercial port of Mundra, which has since become the largest in India. At the same time, he engaged in thermal power generation and coal mining at home and abroad.