Gautam Adani US Bribery Case: Adani Group Stocks See Massive Crash; Many Hitting Lower Circuit

Adani Group Stocks Crash: Several Adani Company stocks nosedived, even hitting the lower circuit on November 21.

New Delhi: Adani Group Stocks Crash--As Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani found himself embroiled in a USD 250 million bribery case by US Prosecutors, the company's stocks came massively falling on Indian bourses. Shares of Adani Group of companies saw a decline of between 10 and 20 percent on Thursday (November 21).

Adani Energy Solutions stock came down to Rs 697.70 apiece on BSE, hitting 20 percent lower circuit; Adani Enterprises hit 10 percent lower circuits of Rs 2,538.20; Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone hit 10 percent lower circuits of Rs1,160.15; Ambuja Cements hit 10 percent lower circuits of Rs 494.65

Adani Green Energy shares dropped 19 percent; Both Adani Power and Adani Total Gas crashed 18 percent; Adani Wilmar share dropped 10 percent. Also, Ambuja Cements cracked 14.99 percent, ACC fell 14.54 percent, NDTV dropped 14.37 percent and Adani Wilmar declined 10 percent.

Adani was charged by US Prosecutors with defrauding investors, hiding plan to bribe Indian officials

It has been alleged that Adani duped investors by concealing that his company's huge solar energy project on the subcontinent was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme. A five-count criminal indictment has been unsealed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, "A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court charging Gautam Adani, Sagar R. Adani, and Vneet S. Jaain, with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements."

Others being charged in the indictment include Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange (the U.S. Issuer), and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the alleged bribery scheme.

"As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors," stated United States Attorney Breon Peace.

“The case involves a lucrative arrangement for Adani Green Energy Ltd. And another firm to sell 12 gigawatts of solar power to the Indian government — enough to light millions of homes and businesses. The indictment paints Adani and his co-defendants as playing two sides of the deal. It accuses them of portraying it as rosy and above-board to Wall Street investors who poured several billion dollars into the project over the last five years while, back in India, they were paying or planning to pay about USD 265 million in bribes to government officials to help secure billions of dollars' worth of contracts and financing,” AP has reported.

"The business executives allegedly bribed the Indian government to finance lucrative contracts designed to benefit their businesses. Adani and other defendants also defrauded investors by raising capital on the basis of false statements about bribery and corruption, while still other defendants allegedly attempted to conceal the bribery conspiracy by obstructing the government's investigation," stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Dennehy.

With Agency Inputs