Gautam Adani ‘bribery’ case: How trouble began since Hindenburg charges – timeline

On November 20, U.S. time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani, accusing them of involvement in Participated in a multi-billion dollar bribery and fraud scheme.

“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today filed charges against Adani Green Energy Ltd. executives Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani and Azure Power Global Ltd. executive Cyril Kabanes,” an official said. They conducted a massive bribery scheme,” the SEC released.

U.S. securities regulators said Adani Green raised more than $175 million from U.S. investors and Azure Power shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange. The scheme is said to enable the two renewable energy companies to capitalize on multi-billion dollar solar project opportunities.

The development is the latest in a series of troubles facing the group since the release of a report by U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research.

Look at what happened after the Hindenburg Report:

January 2023: Hindenburg Research, an American short-selling agency, released an original report on the Adani Group on January 24, 2023, titled “Adani Group: How the World’s Third Richest Man Perpetrated the Biggest Scam in Corporate History.”

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani lost nearly $150 billion in market value within a month of the report.

The group “engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over a period of decades,” the report said.

Hindenburg also accuses members of the Adani family of creating offshore shell companies in tax haven countries such as Mauritius, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean Islands, using forged import and export documents to show false income and laundering money from their listed companies. Report. However, the group denied all accusations.

August 2023: The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) investigated the Adani Group and found that two Mauritian funds, the Emerging India Focus Fund (EIFF) and the Emerging Markets Renaissance Fund (EMRF), invested in and traded in four listed Adani Group companies. Shares of group companies from 2013 to 2018, The Guardian and financial times the report said.

Two foreign investors, Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli from the United Arab Emirates and Chang Chung-Ling from Taiwan, invested nearly $430 million in March 2017. Investigations also revealed that Excel Investment and Advisory Services Limited are two entities owned by Vinod Adani, the promoter of the company. Adani Group and Gautam Adani’s brother received more than $1.4 million in “consulting” fees from management companies of EIFF, EMRF and GOF between June and August 2014, company denies OCCRP report All charges filed.

There is evidence that Vinod Adani operated all these front companies and invested huge amounts of money in Adani group shares through these companies.

December 2023: Adani Properties acquired the 259-hectare Dharavi redevelopment project in November 2023. The deal triggered protests, with Maharashtra opposition leaders and workers leading thousands of protesters to Gautam Adani’s Mumbai office on December 16, 2023.

Protesters used flags and banners with slogans such as “Get rid of Adani, save Dharavi”. They fear the company will benefit from the redevelopment project rather than the people living in Asia’s largest slum.

August 2024: The second round of Hindenburg charges was filed on August 10 against Madhabi Puri Buch, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The report said Bucher had a conflict of interest.

Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch are said to own shares in certain offshore entities linked to the Adani Group. Gautam Adani’s brother Vinod Adani was allegedly involved in the money laundering scandal using these entities.

Madhabi Puri Buch and Dhaval Buch deny all allegations made by the American short seller. Adani Group’s share price took another hit on the stock market, losing $2.4 billion in one trading day. The losses were down from the $13 billion that followed Hindenburg’s first Adani report.

September 2024: Hindenburg’s third criticism of Adani Group came through a social media post on the X platform, saying that Swiss authorities had frozen $310 million of Adani Group’s funds in multiple Swiss bank accounts. The U.S. short-seller reportedly cited local Swiss outlet Gotham City as saying it was part of a money laundering investigation into Adani Group.

“As part of an investigation into Adani’s money laundering and securities counterfeiting, Swiss authorities froze more than $310 million in multiple Swiss bank accounts as early as 2021,” Hindenburg said in a post on the

Adani Group once again denied all accusations.

November 2024: On November 20, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. securities market regulator, announced charges against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and others, accusing them of massive bribery.

U.S. authorities claim they promised to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials in order to secure solar contracts. The SEC also claimed that the scheme was implemented to benefit two companies, Adani Green Energy and Azure Power, to tap into multi-billion dollar solar projects.

Shares of the group’s flagship Adani Enterprises plunged nearly 23%, suffering huge losses and hitting lows in market trading on Thursday. Chairman Gautam Adani’s net worth drops by more than $10.5 billion, close to $88,726 Crore on Thursday, November 21.

The company has denied all allegations, saying “the allegations brought against Director Adani Green by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are baseless and denied.”