The documents released by the US Department of Justice showed that the seven individuals named in the alleged bribery case used code names while communicating with each other.
A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements.
The indictment also charges Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian pension fund CDPQ.
While communicating with each other they referred Gautam Adani as “SAG,” “Mr A,” “Numero uno” and “the big man,” and referred to Jaain as “V,” “snake” and “Numero uno minus one.”
On or about April 25, 2022, Gautam Adani , Jaain, Gupta among others were scheduled to meet in New Delhi to discuss the Bribery Scheme.
In anticipation of the meeting, Jaain used his cellular phone to photograph a document summarizing the amounts the Adani Green’s US unit owed the Indian parent for its respective portion of the alleged bribes.
The summary reflected that the US entity owed $7 million for the bribes that were promised to secure the 650 MW power purchase agreements (PPAs); and (ii) $76 million for the bribes that were promised to secure the 2.3 GW PPAs.
In another meeting held at Adani headquarters in Ahmedabad, it has been alalged that Gautam Adani presented multiple options by which the US entity could conceal satisfaction of its portion of the bribe payments, including by transferring the 2.3 GW PPAs to Adani Green’s India unit.
However, this required approval from the Boards of Directors of the US entity. To do so, Adani & Co allegedly contrived pretextual reasons of the ongoing litigation regarding the project and deteriorating economics, which were meant to obfuscate the true reason, the US DoJ has alleged.
The US authorities started investigating the transactions because Adani Green wanted to raise funds from US investors. On or about March 5, 2021, four wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Indian energy company raised a total of $1.35 billion in a United States-dollar denominated senior secured debt facility from the international branches of a group of global financial institutions.
On or about September 8, 2021, the Indian Energy Company issued $750 million in senior secured notes due 2024 (the “2021 144A Bond”). The 2021 144A Bond was marketed and offered to QIBs in the United States. The 2021 144A Bond raised money for the Indian Energy Company’s ongoing projects, including the “corrupt” Manufacturing Linked Project.
March 17, 2023, FBI special agents approached Sagar Adani in the United States and, pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant, took custody of electronic devices in his possession.