• Gautam Adani has been charged with bribery in a $250 million case by federal prosecutors.
• Prosecutors said four of his associates discussed their share of the bribes via Excel and PowerPoint.
• Those presentations listed various ways to reimburse Adani for the bribes, investigators say.

New York prosecutors charging one of India's richest men with bribery said his associates used Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint to discuss and analyze their corrupt payments.

Gautam Adani, the founder of the Indian conglomerate Adani Group, is accused by federal prosecutors of promising more than $250 million in bribes to Indian officials for solar panel contracts and then hiding the payments from investors.

Two senior executives of his energy subsidiary, Adani Green Energy, were named as defendants: his nephew, Sagar Adani, and a managing director, Vneet Jaain.

Prosecutors also charged four executives and stakeholders of another India-based company, Azure Power Global, saying they conspired with Adani to facilitate the bribes and later conceal them.

The indictment against the eight men said the Azure team used Excel and PowerPoint presentations to "determine which corrupt payment option was best."

Officials said the Azure execs were figuring out how to reimburse Adani about $80 million for their share of the bribes since the billionaire's team handled the payments.

So the Azure team discussed their options with presentations created by Rupesh Agarwal, a consultant for Azure and one of the defendants, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said that in one PowerPoint presentation, Agarwal detailed a list of ways that Azure could financially return the favor to Adani.

These options included handing over an energy project to Adani, entering a joint venture with him in the US, or paying the billionaire's firm through a "development fee," per the indictment.

The Azure execs are also accused of later trying to conceal their involvement by deleting text messages and at least one PowerPoint presentation.

An attorney for Cyril Cabanes, one of the defendants associated with Azure Power Global, told Business Insider he had no comment on the allegations related to the Excel and PowerPoint presentations.

The Adani Group and attorneys for the other defendants did not respond to requests for comment from BI.

Although the Adani Group's companies are not listed on US markets, US authorities have stepped in because the Indian conglomerate has been raising billions with international banks and American investors.

Prosecutors said that during this period, the Adani Group falsely told investors at least four times that it had not paid bribes.

As for Azure, the energy firm was on the New York Stock Exchange until November 2023, when the company was delisted by the exchange's committee.

The Eastern District of New York is prosecuting the bribery case and said the Adani Group had stood to profit about $2 billion from the contracts acquired through bribes.

Notably, two other "co-conspirators," a British citizen living in Hong Kong and an Indian citizen, were mentioned but not named.

In a statement on its website on Thursday, the Adani Group said the prosecution's accusations are "baseless and denied."

"As stated by the US Department of Justice itself, 'the charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.' All possible legal recourse will be sought," the statement read.

As of press time, shares of companies owned by the Adani Group, including its main firm Adani Enterprises and Adani Green Energy, have plunged some 25% since the indictment made headlines on Wednesday.

The SEC on Wednesday also charged Adani and his nephew, Sagar, with violating antifraud provisions, asking for civil penalties, permanent injunctions, and the barring of both from officer or director positions.

• On Wednesday, Gautam Adani was charged by US prosecutors in a massive bribery scheme.
• The charges have spurred an investor revolt and at least one customer to back out of major deals.
• Adani is the 2nd-richest person in India, behind Mukesh Ambani.

Gautam Adani, the second-richest person in India, is facing bribery charges in the US and business tumult globally.

Adani is the founder and chairman of the Adani Group, a multinational conglomerate with businesses spanning energy, mining, ports, and airports. The Adani Group owns India's largest commercial port and has a controlling stake in Mumbai's international airport.

On Wednesday, New York prosecutors said Adani executives paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to the Indian government and hid them from US investors. The Adani Group called the allegations "baseless." 

The charges wiped out billions from Adani's and his brother's paper fortunes. Shares of companies related to Adani, including his flagship Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy, and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd., crashed 20% in the first two hours of trade on Thursday, wiping out more than $30 billion.

The charges led to immediate business fallout. Following the news, Adani Green Energy canceled plans to raise $600 million in US dollar-denominated bonds, the company said in a statement to the National Stock Exchange of India. On Thursday, Kenya's president canceled deals with the Adani Group for its main airport and for power line construction. 

A short seller's report sent stocks down

The indictment isn't the first serious bout of trouble for Adani.

A 2023 report by Hindenburg Research, an investment-research firm and short seller, sent Adani's wealth on a downward spiral. In the report, which Hindenburg said took two years to compile, the short-seller accused the Adani Group of a "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme." Adani companies' stocks tumbled but later recovered.

The Adani Group has said it was exploring legal action against Hindenburg and released a 413-page report which said that Hindenburg's claims were "nothing but a lie." It called Hindenburg's document a "malicious combination of selective misinformation and concealed facts relating to baseless and discredited allegations." 

Hindenburg criticized the group's response, saying it failed to address many of its questions.

Adani Group did not ultimately sue Hindenburg over the report.

From diamond sorter to tycoon

Adani was born in Ahmedabad, in the Indian state of Gujarat, in 1962. He dropped out of university after his second year studying commerce, according to Silicon India. He then turned to the diamond industry, first as a sorter and then as a trader in Mumbai.

After his brother purchased a plastic company, Adani started working with him and began importing PVC. In 1988, he set up Adani Enterprises.

Today, the Adani Group comprises 10 listed companies with a combined 46,000 employees.

The billionaire is a key ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government has inked infrastructure and other deals with Adani's companies. Bloomberg deemed Modi "the foundation of the tycoon's empire."

• Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been charged in a massive bribery scheme.
• US prosecutors allege he and his execs bribed Indian government officials to secure energy contracts.
• Adani and his executives convinced US investors to buy bonds on false promises, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors brought bribery charges against billionaire Gautam Adani, one of the richest people in India, alleging the business magnate and seven of his senior executives paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to the Indian government and hid them from US investors.

New York prosecutors allege in an indictment that Adani and his executives promised more than $250 million in bribes to win solar energy contracts from the Indian government between 2020 and 2024.

Those contracts, according to federal prosecutors, were projected to generate more than $2 billion in profits after tax over roughly a 20-year period.

Prosecutors allege that Adani personally met with an Indian government official on several occasions in order to advance the elaborate scheme.

In a parallel action, the SEC on Wednesday charged Adani and his nephew, Sagar Adani, with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. The SEC complaint seeks permanent injunctions, civil penalties, and officer and director bars.

"As alleged, Gautam and Sagar Adani induced US investors to buy Adani Green bonds through an offering process that misrepresented not only that Adani Green had a robust anti-bribery compliance program but also that the company's senior management had not and would not pay or promise to pay bribes," a statement from Sanjay Wadhwa, Acting Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said in part.

Gautam Adani, the founder and chairman of Indian conglomerate Adani Group, is estimated to be worth more than $85 billion, according to Bloomberg.

The company and the other defendants named in the indictment did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment. Attorneys for Adani could not immediately be reached.

Adani and his executives convinced US investors to buy bonds in one of the companies using false promises, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors say in the indictment that the false statements and misrepresentations that Adani, his nephew, and Adani Green Energy Limited executive Vneet Jaain made and caused others to make "induced investors to purchase bonds and financial institutions to lend money pursuant to terms and at prices that did not account for the true risk associated with the transactions."

During the course of the scheme, prosecutors say that Adani and his executives frequently discussed their alleged corrupt efforts on an electronic messaging app and extensively documented them.

For example, prosecutors say that Sagar Adani used his cell phone to log specific details of the bribes that were promised to government officials.

Prosecutors also said that another defendant, Rupesh Agarwal, sent around Powerpoint and Excel documents that summarized various options for paying and concealing bribe payments.