Adani Group has cleared the air on the indictment of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani by a federal grand jury in the United States over fraud allegations.
In a statement on Saturday, October 23, Adani Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jugeshinder Robbie Singh explained that the charges against Adani are related solely to one of its companies, Adani Green Energy Limited.
He further stated that the Ksh32.4 billion bribery scheme impacted only 10 per cent of Adani’s businesses.
“You would have seen a lot of news in the last 2 days on Adani matters. This specifically relates to one contract of Adani Green which is roughly 10% of overall business of Adani Green (there is a lot more precise & comprehensive detail of this which we will elaborate in an appropriate forum),” he said.
Adani CFO Speaks on Fraud Charges
Singh noted that the company learned of the “specificity” of the charges only two days prior.
However, he emphasized that the Indian conglomerate had anticipated potential issues, as they had disclosed the possibility of such concerns in their February 2024 144A offering circular under the Risk Factors section.
“This was first public issuance, of any of our portfolio companies or their subsidiaries or JV companies after our annual results of 31st March 2023,” he added.
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Jugeshinder Robbie Singh also clarified that Adani Group has a diverse portfolio of 11 public companies, none of which are currently subject to indictment.
He specifically pointed out that none of the companies are named as defendants in the recent legal filings made by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to a court in New York City.
He further emphasized that none of the companies in Adani’s portfolio, nor any specific issuers that are subsidiaries of these public companies, are accused of any wrongdoing in the mentioned legal filing.
“There is a lot of news and reports that will try to pick unrelated items and create a headline,” he added.
Singh further said that they will respond in full time once they review in detail the matter as presented in the legal filing.
“Please note that no court has ruled on this and as outlined by lawyers of DOJ, ‘these are allegations and accused have presumption of innocence’,” he concluded.
“We will make a more detailed comment once we get counsel approvals to discuss what we can in public on matter that is sub-judice.”
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This comes after the US federal court on Thursday, November 21, issued an arrest warrant for the billionaire after he was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with allegedly defrauding investors and bribing officials.
The 62-year-old Adani Group boss faces the allegations alongside his nephew and six others in connection to one of the world’s largest solar projects.
According to US officials, the bribes were given to Indian government officials, while concealing these payments from investors.
Further, an investigation conducted by the FBI noted that Adani and the others agreed to bribe Indian government officials to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts.
President William Ruto in his State of the Nation Address, stopped with immediate effect the takeover of an ongoing Public Private Partnership (PPP) between the government and the Adani Group over the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO).
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