AP Name Comes To The Fore In Bribe Charges Against Gautam Adani
The US court paper claimed that one high ranking official from Andhra Pradesh allegedly received ($228 mn) the lion’s share of total bribe amount
AP Name Comes To The Fore In Bribe Charges Against Gautam Adani
Bengaluru: The US court filing accusing Gautam Adani, his nephew and six others of alleged bribery payment to Indian government officials has got an Andhra Pradesh angle. The Southern State, which is one of the most prosperous provinces of Indian republic, has found a mention in the 54-four page indictment document issued by the US court.
According to the document, a high ranking official- referred as ‘Foreign Official#1’- in Andhra Pradesh was allegedly paid bribes amounting to about $228 million (Rs1,750 cr) by the Adani Group officials.
“In addition, the defendant Gautam S Adani personally met with “Foreign Official #1” in Andhra Pradesh to advance the execution of a PSA between SECI and Andhra Pradesh’s state electricity distribution companies, including on or about August 7, 2021, on or about September 12, 2021 and on or about November 20, 2021,” the court filings read.
Importantly, the total bribe payment allegations to Indian government officials as per the court filings stood at $265 million (Rs2,029 cr). It means, a lion’s share of the alleged bribe money was offered to the high ranking official in Andhra Pradesh, whose name was not been revealed by the court documents.
Adani Group, which survived last year’s huge short-selling moves by Hindenburg Research, on Thursday faced another blow as its Founder and India’s second-richest man Gautam Adani was charged under bribery and securities fraud allegations in the US.
What are the allegations all about?
According to the US prosecutors, the “Indian Energy Company” and a “US Issuer” won awards to supply 8 gigawatts and 4 gigawatts of solar power at a fixed rate to state-owned Solar Energy Corporation of India (SCI).
SECI was supposed to sell the power to state electricity companies. However, SECI could not find buyers, so it could not enter into corresponding power purchase agreements with Adani Group and Azure Power. To fix this problem, the defendants came up with a plan to bribe state government officials in India to buy the power from SECI.
