Adani Group on reported bribery probe by US prosecutors
New Delhi: Adani Group said that the conglomerate has not received any notice from the US Department of Justice with respect to probe into bribery allegations that were reported earlier, according to exchange filings. It was reported last week by Bloomberg citing people in the know that US prosecutors had widened their probe of the Adani Group as they are focussing on whether an Adani entity may have engaged in bribery. The report claimed that the probe is also looking at the conduct of Adani Group founder Gautam Adani.
The probe is also looking at Indian renewable energy company Azure Power Global Ltd., the report claimed and it is being handled by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Justice Department’s fraud unit in Washington. But this does not necessarily means that Gautam Adani or his company have been charged with any wrongdoing as investigations don’t always lead to prosecutions.
Adani companies haven’t received “any notice from the Department of Justice of US in respect of the allegation referred to in the said article,” listed Adani companies including Adani Enterprises Ltd. and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. said in separate filings calling the report “false.”
Earlier Adani Group told Bloomberg, “We are not aware of any investigation against our chairman. As a business group that operates with the highest standards of governance, we are subject to and fully compliant with anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws in India and other countries.”
This comes after last year, Hindenburg published its report against Adani group companies alleging that it was involved in fraudulent transactions, accounting frauds as well as stock market manipulation which led to a massive stock rout in Adani group companies as they lost $111 billion worth of investor wealth.
