New Delhi — Nearly two years after one of India’s biggest conglomerates was hit by allegations of wrongdoing by a U.S. investment firm, it is again in the eye of a storm as it faces charges of fraud, which analysts say are far more serious.
The latest allegations by the United States could dampen investor confidence in Asia’s third largest economy at a time when the country is wooing foreign investment. They have also triggered a political storm in India with opposition parties demanding a probe into the allegations against an influential business tycoon whose $135 billion empire — spanning seaports, airports and energy – has a massive imprint on the Indian economy.
An indictment filed in New York last week charged Gautam Adani, the founder of Adani Group, with duping investors by concealing that a huge solar energy project was being facilitated by an alleged $250 million scheme that involved bribing Indian officials to obtain lucrative contracts.
The company in question, Adani Energy Green, is building a massive solar energy plant in the western state of Gujarat and plans to generate enough energy to light up millions of homes.
Adani Group has strongly denied allegations made by U.S. authorities against Gautam Adani and other top officials.
The charges came after the conglomerate endured accusations of engaging in stock market manipulation and fraud. The allegations were made last year by a U.S. investment firm, Hindenburg Research. Indian regulators, who investigated the charges, said they found no wrongdoing.
Analysts say the new indictment in the U.S. poses a far bigger challenge.
“It’s one thing for allegations to come from a short seller firm or from media outlets,” according to Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute in Washington. “But this is a case of the U.S. government coming out with a long and detailed indictment. It’s a whole other order of magnitude.”
Gautam Adani, 62, is a college dropout from a middle-class family who has led a dizzying rise in his conglomerate’s fortunes, especially since he began in the 1990s expanding into infrastructure. He has built power plants, airports, roads and renewable energy projects in India as the country pushes to bridge an infrastructure deficit for its growing economy.
Besides Adani’s huge presence in India, his global ambitions have taken his companies to other countries, including Australia, Indonesia and Israel. After Donald Trump’s recent U.S. presidential election victory, in a post on X, Adani congratulated Trump and announced plans to invest $10 billion in energy and infrastructure projects in the U.S.
The U.S. indictment already is impacting the conglomerate’s push to expand his energy and infrastructure business overseas. A day after the charges became public, Kenya announced it is scrapping airport expansion and electricity deals worth about $2.5 billion with Adani Group.
The indictment also has cast a cloud over planned projects in Sri Lanka, as government officials on Tuesday said the finance and foreign ministries will review infrastructure projects awarded to the Indian conglomerate. Adani has a contract to develop a deep seaport terminal in Colombo.
The controversy will affect the reputation of Adani Group, say analysts.
“Definitely the charges will trigger mistrust in the Adani Group. There will also be an increase in borrowing cost for them, so they will need to work that much harder,” according to Shriram Subramanian, founder of corporate governance advisory firm InGovern Research Services. “But it won’t be debilitating in the long run because they have a good track record in executing projects.”
The U.S. charges will raise questions about business practices and norms in India and could hurt the country’s effort to woo businesses looking to set up factories and facilities in countries outside China.
“In the immediate term, it could give some investors cold feet, as they may not want to risk their reputations investing in a country where Adani’s clout and reach is so expansive across the economy,” according to Kugelman. “This would be especially bad timing for New Delhi, which wants to capitalize on many foreign investors’ desire to relocate production and other business out of China.”
Kugelman pointed out that the setback to the investment climate in India is likely to be temporary because “the key drivers impacting foreign investment in India — multiple growth sectors, large consumer markets, a fast-growing major economy will remain in place.”
The U.S. indictment has also turned the spotlight on accusations made for several years by India’s main opposition Congress Party and by other critics — that the tycoon’s dramatic business expansion has coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule.
Parliament was disrupted for a second day on Wednesday as opposition parties demanded a discussion on the indictment. “He should be in jail and the government is protecting him,” Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi told reporters outside parliament.
At a protest on Monday, Congress Party activists held placards reading, “Modi and Adani are one” and “Modi’s friendship is costing the nation.”
The government has not commented on the charges. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has pointed out that the charges involved bribing officials in four states that were not governed by them, but by opposition parties.
Political analysts say the latest controversy over Adani is not likely to hurt Modi.
“This issue has been raised for a long time, but it has not impacted the prime minister in any way. The opposition has not been able to convince the people about their case,” according to political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. “At the moment, people simply look at it as a case of one group being favored over another by the government, which many people feel is not unusual in India.”
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