New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States seems to have failed to bring any relief to Adani Group founder Gautam Adani. A week after the much talked about meeting between US President Donald Trump and PM Modi, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the US has asked Indian authorities for help in its investigation of Adani and his nephew over alleged securities fraud and a $265-million bribery scheme.
The US stock market regulator (SEC), in a court filing on Tuesday, stated in a New York district court that it was making all efforts to serve the notice to Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani. It stated that the SEC has been seeking involvement of the Indian government to serve them the complaint, as none of them are in the US custody. “Both are now in India. We have requested India’s law ministry to help ensure completion of the investigation of fraud under the Hague service convention,” it said in the court filing.
According to media reports, Federal prosecutors in New York on November 21 last year had indicted Gautam Adani, his nephew and six others on multiple counts of fraud. The charges stem from an alleged multibillion-dollar scheme to bribe Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms on solar power contracts, which were projected to generate over $2 billion in profits.
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Adani and others have been accused of bribing officials in India to convince them to buy electricity produced by Adani Green Energy (AGEL), a subsidiary of his Adani Group and mislead the US based investors. US investors were provided reassuring information about the company’s anti-graft practices, it added. Adani Group had, however, dubbed the allegations “baseless” and vowed to seek “all possible legal recourse”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had lost his cool when a reporter in a joint press briefing with Trump in Washington asked the PM if he had discussed the Adani case with the US President. Modi was taken aback at the question and resorted to explaining what democracy meant for India instead of replying directly. In his concluding remarks, Modi described Adani’s issue as his personal matter and said such individual issues were never discussed by the leaders of the two countries.
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Main opposition party, Congress has called for Adani’s arrest and accused Modi of shielding him or favouring him in deals in the past. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and Adani have denied the charges of fraud in the US.
In January, Adani Green said it had appointed independent law firms to review the US indictment.
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