Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani during an event, in Nagpur. (PTI file photo)
US prosecutors have charged billionaire tycoon Gautam Adani with involvement in a plan to pay more than $250 million in bribes to government officials in India for solar energy contracts, a move that stands to further roil his ports-to-power conglomerate. Here are some of the highlights from the 54-page indictment.
- Gautam Adani personally met with Indian authorities on numerous occasions to advance the bribery plot.
- Co-conspirators met in person and communicated through an electronic messaging app to discuss execution, including while in the US.
- They made extensive electronic documentation of their bribery efforts, including using cell phones to track the locations and recipients of the promised bribes and photographing adocument summarizing the amounts offered.
- They prepared PowerPoint and Excel presentations to determine which payment option was best. One summarized the options suggested by Gautam Adani, and described the direct payment to the Indian Energy Company as a “Development Fee.”
- The defendants often referred to each other by code names including “V,” “snake” and “numero uno minus one.” Gautam Adani was called “Mr A,” “numero uno” and “the big man.”
- Some members of the group destroyed evidence to hide their participation in the scheme, including a PowerPoint analysis and electronic communications.
- Gautam Adani emailed himself photos of each page of the search warrant and grand jury subpoena the FBI handed his nephew and co-defendant Sagar Adani.
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