MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – The finance chief of India’s Adani Group yesterday rejected U.S. allegations that executives, including Chairman Gautam Adani, were part of a $265 million bribery scheme, while the Indian government said it has not received any U.S. request on the case.
U.S. authorities accused Adani, one of the world’s richest people, his nephew and executive director Sagar Adani as well as managing director of Adani Green, Vneet S. Jaain, of being part of a scheme to pay bribes of $265 million to secure Indian solar power supply contracts.
“We reject all of this strongly on behalf of the individuals,” Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder Singh told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Mumbai.
“We know for sure, 100%, that nothing of this sort happened. If we were paying that amount of cash to someone I would certainly know, so we know nothing happened,” Singh said.
The ports-to-power conglomerate has previously denied the charges, made earlier this month, as “baseless” and vowed to seek “all possible legal recourse”.
Singh said that the group would not be taking any action on the U.S. indictment, but that the accused individuals would clarify on the allegations over the next 10 days after seeking legal advice.
Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the CFO’s statement.
Singh also sought to allay concerns about any impact from the allegations to the group’s expansion plans. “No planned acquisition will be on hold… nothing will impact our investment plans in logistics and energy,” he said.
