India’s second richest man Gautam Adani has been accused of paying bribe to get a contract. This allegation has been made in America. In this case, the Federal Court of New York has issued an arrest warrant against him.
An indent has been filed in the New York court. This is a kind of charge sheet. In this, 8 people including Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani have been made accused. It is alleged that he had offered a bribe of 265 million dollars i.e. about Rs 2200 crore to government officials to get a solar energy contract in India.
America’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has made this allegation. Adani and his associates gave this alleged bribe to government officials because they expected to earn a profit of about two billion dollars i.e. about Rs 17 thousand crore from this project in the next 20 years.
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The question arises that the project was of India, if bribe was given to Indian officers then why a case in America? That’s because the matter of giving bribe was hidden from American investors.
What is the whole matter?
This entire matter is related to Adani Green Energy and Azure Power. This case was registered in New York court in October this year.
According to the indenture, Adani Green Energy had got the contract to provide 12 GW solar energy to the Indian government company Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). Of this, Adani Green Energy would supply 8 GW and Azure Power would supply 4 GW. SECI had to sell this electricity to the power companies of the country, but could not find buyers.
In such a situation, Adani and his associates bribed government officials so that they could buy electricity from SECI. Deals were made with power companies of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir.
Under these agreements, Andhra Pradesh would purchase 2,000 MW, Odisha 500 MW, Chhattisgarh 300 MW, Tamil Nadu 1,000 MW and Jammu and Kashmir 100 MW. All these agreements were made between December 2021 and February 2022.
There are a total of eight accused in this entire case. These include Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, Vineet Jain, Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabaniss, Saurabh Aggarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Aggarwal.
Two cases of alleged bribery
There are two cases in America against Adani and his associates for alleged bribery. The FBI is investigating a case. Whereas, the second case is being handled by the Securities Exchange Commission.
There are five important characters among those investigating against Adani and his associates. Among them, two are also Indians, who are associated with the Securities Exchange Commission.
Who are those Indians?
1. Sanjay Wadhwa: Sanjay Wadhwa, an American citizen of Indian origin, is the acting director of the Enforcement Division of SEC. The job of this division is to take action against the criminals and to get back their money to the investors who have suffered losses. Wadhwa took over this responsibility on October 11 this year.
2. Tejal D. Shah: She is the Associate Regional Director of the Enforcement Division in the New York office of the SEC. The investigation into alleged bribe giving is being done under the supervision of Tejal Shah. She has been associated with SEC since 2014. Only last year he was appointed Associate Director.
What next in this matter?
Adani Group has rejected these allegations as baseless. Adani Group has issued a statement saying that the allegations leveled against the directors of Adani Green Energy are baseless. Adani Group has said that it will take legal action.
As soon as the indent comes, an arrest warrant is issued against the accused. In such a situation, the accused has to present his case either himself or through a lawyer.
After the indent comes, Adani and his associates can challenge it. If you do not get relief here, you can also go to the Supreme Court.
The court has imposed Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) on the accused in the alleged bribery case. If found guilty under this law, the punishment can be five years in jail or fine or both.