The SEC sued Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani for violating the antifraud provisions of federal securities laws in late 2024, alleging the two Adani Green Energy executives ran a bribery scheme while selling $750 million in corporate bonds to investors, including more than $175 million to U.S. buyers.
The scheme, as the complaint describes it: both defendants personally paid or promised the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian state government officials to secure contracts for what would become India’s largest solar power plant. Adani Green stood to earn billions from those contracts. A second company, Azure Global Power Limited, agreed to pay a portion of those bribes, and both defendants were involved in collecting that payment.
During those same months, Adani Green told bond purchasers in September 2021 that none of its directors or officers had paid or promised to pay bribes. The company called itself a leader in India for anti-bribery and good governance. None of it was true.
Without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations, Gautam Adani consented to a $6 million civil penalty and Sagar Adani to $12 million, each subject to court approval. The DOJ also charged both men with securities fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy. The criminal case remains pending, though reporting suggests the DOJ plans to drop charges against Gautam Adani altogether. Even if that happens, the civil penalties won’t disappear.
The court hasn’t approved the consent judgments yet.
— James Okafor