In the latest on the US indictment of the top executives of Adani Group including Gautam Adani, the spotlight is on Sagar Adani. According to a Reuters report, the court filings indicate that Sagar Adani, the millennial scion of the company, kept track of the millions of dollars of alleged bribes to Indian officials on his mobile phone.
U.S. prosecutors called the notes on Adani’s phone “bribe notes.” In those notes, Sagar Adani, has noted the amount of the bribe that was offered along with details of which government official was offered. Additionally, there were details of how much solar power would be bought by the officials’ regions in return for a bribe. The court filings show, he even identified a per megawatt bribe rate to secure the power contracts.
According to Reuters, in discussing how the bribery scheme was moving along in 2020, Sagar Adani remarked in a WhatsApp message: “Yup…but the optics are very difficult to cover.”
Those optics became impossible to cover on Wednesday when Sagar Adani, his uncle Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest men, and six others were indicted for fraud by U.S. prosecutors over their alleged roles in a $265 million scheme to bribe Indian officials to secure power-supply deals expected to yield $2 billion in profit over 20 years. The US Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a parallel civil case.
What did the ‘Bribe Notes’ indicate?
The US Court filings report that Sagar Adani kept track of the payments made as alleged bribes to secure the power deals. According to the filings, “One WhatsApp message dated Feb. 25, 2021, dealt with the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Chhattisgarh as potential purchasers of green power.” Sagar Adani wrote: “Just so you know, we have doubled the incentives to push for these acceptances.”
This apart, Sagar Adani had other details as well. As per the US Court filings, it had very specific details like ‘calculating the bribe’s value down to the per megawatt rate.’ He also sought to be discreet, alluding to the government officials who had taken the money with their abbreviated titles.
There is a specific record of one WhatsApp message dated February 25, 2021, dealing with Jammu and Kashmir as well as Chhattisgarh as potential purchasers of green power. Sagar Adani wrote: “Just so you know, we have doubled the incentives to push for these acceptances.”
In another example laid out in the filings, Sagar Adani offered a bribe in July 2021 worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to government officials in Odisha in exchange for the state agreeing to purchase 500 megawatts of power.
There is also mention of Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani offering bribes to Andhra Pradesh government officials, including the chief minister, in exchange for a power deal of 7,000 MW. The bribe payment was worth approximately $200 million, the court filings say.
Between April and June 2022, Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, along with other company executives, met in person in India multiple times with the chairman of a power company called Azure and other officials. A Reuters report quoting the US Court filings outlined that the discussion included how Gautam Adani, with Sagar Adani’s assistance, “had promised or paid bribes to state government officials” in India to procure contracts, the filings said. U.S. prosecutors said the Adanis repeatedly sought to collect from Azure its agreed-upon share of those bribes.
Adani Group CFO says matter being reviewed
Taking to social media, Jugeshinder Robbie Singh – Group CFO Adani Group reiterated that, “None of the issuers (companies in our portfolio or specific issuers that are subsidiaries of the public companies) are accused of any wrongdoing in the said legal filing.”
The crisis is the second in two years to hit the Adani Group after the Hindenburg saga. Given the reach of Adani Group’s business, the impact was felt across the world. Apart from nearly Rs 2.60 lakh crore wiped off the market value of Adani Group stocks in India, Kenya cancelled a massive airport project with the group. Shares of GQG Partners, an Australian investment firm with a combined stake of 19.37% in multiple Adani Group companies, also took a severe beating in the Australian markets.
Who is Sagar Adani?
Sagar Adani, 30, graduated in Economics from Brown University – USA, an Ivy League college, and joined the Adani Group in 2015. He is the Executive Director – AGEL and currently oversees organization building as well as all strategic and financial matters of Adani Green Energy. According to the listing on the Adani Group website, having started off his career in Projects, he is credited with building the entire solar and wind portfolio of Adani Green Energy.
(With inputs from Reuters)