The Adani Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, is facing serious allegations of corruption.
As US prosecutors on Wednesday accused Gautam Adani and others of orchestrating a $265 million bribery scheme to secure state energy contracts. The bribery accusations have triggered a political storm in the country.
But the seeds of the bombshell indictment were planted back in May 2022 when an insider at Azure Power raised a whistleblower complaint alleging corruption under the company’s whistleblower policy.
Former Azure executives and business tycoon Gautam Adani have been named in unsealed court documents by the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The Adani Group has denied these allegations, calling them “baseless” and stating that it will pursue “all possible legal recourse.”
According to Azure’s 6-K filing, a disclosure submitted by foreign private issuers to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company received a complaint the following year alleging “improper payments and false statements” related to a project subsidiary.
While Azure acknowledged minor issues like “manipulation and misrepresentation of project data by some employees at that project site” and vendor payment concerns, it denied the more serious allegations of bribery.
Following an investigation that included external counsel, Azure stated that it had not found “direct evidence that a corrupt payment was made to any government official.” This marked the first public acknowledgement of such claims within the group.
An SEC filing by Azure in January 2023 revealed that a second whistleblower complaint was received in September 2022, alleging misconduct involving joint ventures and land acquisition. However, a commissioned inquiry again found no supporting evidence.
In a later filing dated March 28, 2024, Azure disclosed that “third-party land aggregators may have been involved in improper payments,” while maintaining that “no improper transfer of money by the Group was identified.”
THE AZURE MAZE
Azure Power Global Limited, originally incorporated in Mauritius, serves as the holding company for a sprawling network of 64 subsidiary and affiliated companies spanning the US, Mauritius, Singapore, and India.
While some subsidiaries, like Azure Power Rajasthan Pvt Ltd., Azure Power Punjab Pvt Ltd. etc., reflect regional or functional identities, others have more abstract names, such as Azure Power Mars Pvt Ltd. and Azure Power Jupiter Pvt Ltd. Numerical designations like Azure Power Thirty Four Pvt Ltd. and Azure Power Thirty Five Pvt Ltd. add to the complexity. Such a random nomenclature process for a global company raises some questions.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) delisted Azure’s shares on November 13, 2022, due to its failure to file periodic reports with the SEC in a timely manner. On April 1, 2024, Azure announced that its US regulatory reporting obligations had been suspended following the delisting.
Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir came into focus after US prosecutors indicted Adani. Several leaders of these states, including Andhra Pradesh, denied such allegations and said they were investigating the claims.