The Adani Group has sought to clear its name after a whirlwind few days that saw the global conglomerate indicted by US prosecutors over an alleged bribery scheme.
The company, through its Chief Financial Officer, Jugeshinder Singh, has claimed that the indictment over a $265 million (about Ksh32 billion at the current exchange rates) alleged bribe to Indian government officials to secure power deals only affected 10 per cent of the company. According to Singh, the allegations only affected Adani Green Energy.
“The allegations in the US indictment relate to one contract of Adani Green, which is roughly 10 per cent of the overall business of Adani Green,” he stated on X.
Singh further went on to state that no other firms in the conglomerate were accused of any wrongdoing. “Adani Group has a portfolio of 11 public companies, and none are subject to indictment. None of the issuers (that is, companies in our portfolio or specific issuers that are subsidiaries of the public companies) are accused of any wrongdoing in the said legal filing,” he added.
Singh’s comments come after Gautam Adani, founder and CEO of Adani, along with seven other executives in the multibillion-dollar Indian company, were indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in New York for bribing Indian government officials on Wednesday, November 20.
According to a report by CNN, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Miller stated that the bribes were to facilitate the officials lying to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars and to obstruct justice.
“This indictment alleges schemes to pay over $250 (approximately Ksh32 billion) million in bribes to Indian government officials. These offences were allegedly committed by senior executives and directors to obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors,” she stated.
The green energy supply contracts Adani was chasing were meant to make the company a profit of $2 billion (approximately Ksh259 billion) over 20 years.
In a swift response to the allegations, Adani dismissed the accusations as “baseless” and stated that they would pursue all possible legal avenues to defend themselves.
The charges from the United States had significant repercussions for Adani’s global businesses, causing the group’s shares to plummet, and leading some banks to consider temporarily halting the issuance of new credit to the conglomerate.
Notably, President Ruto canceled the deals between JKIA, KETRACO, and Adani, valued at Ksh 338 billion, in light of the US charges.
During his State of the Nation address in Parliament on Thursday, November 21, the Head of State explained that his decision was influenced by credible evidence or information regarding corruption.
“I have stated in the past, and I reiterate today, that in the face of undisputed evidence or credible information on corruption, I will not hesitate to take decisive action,” stated the Head of State.
”Accordingly, I now direct – in furtherance of the principles enshrined in Article 10 of the Constitution on transparency and accountability, and based on new information provided by our investigative agencies and partner nations – that the procuring agencies within the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum immediately cancel the ongoing procurement process for the JKIA Expansion Public Private Partnership transaction, as well as the recently concluded KETRACO transmission line Public Private Partnership contract, and immediately commence the process of onboarding alternative partners,” he announced.
Ruto’s directive came just after Transport CS Davis Chirchir and Energy CS Opiyo Wandayi had defended the deals the government had sealed with Adani.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE