New Delhi: Kenyan President Willian Ruto has taken a strong stance on major projects involving the Adani Group. On Thursday, he announced the suspension of the procurement process for expanding Kenya’s main airport, which included a proposal from the Adani Group.

Ruto also revealed  the cancellation of a 736-million dollars, 30-year public-private partnership deal with an Adani Group unit for building power transmission lines, signalling a shift in the country’s approach to such agreements,  Reuters reported on Thursday.

Kenyan President William Ruto, in his state of the nation address, stated, “I have directed agencies within the ministry of transport and within the ministry of energy and petroleum to immediately cancel the ongoing procurement,” citing “new information provided by investigative agencies and partner nations” as the reason for the decision.

Adani Energy Solutions, led by Gautam Adani had signed a 30-year, 736 million dollars public-private partnership deal with the Kenya Electrical Transmission Company in October. However, the agreement was suspended by a court later that same month.

On November 21, Kenya’s energy minister clarified that there was no evidence of bribery or corruption in awarding a contract to a unit of the Adani Group for constructing power lines in the country. 

The Adani Group has responded to allegations against directors of Adani Green made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In a release, a spokesperson stated, “The allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied.” The group also confirmed its intention to pursue “all possible legal recourse.”

New Delhi: Yet another blow was dealt to Gautam Adani, as the billionaire Indian businessman was charged by US Prosecutors with defrauding investors, hiding plan to bribe Indian officials

It has been alleged that Adani duped investors by concealing that his company’s huge solar energy project on the subcontinent was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme. A five-count criminal indictment has been unsealed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York, “A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court charging Gautam Adani, Sagar R. Adani, and Vneet S. Jaain, with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements.”

Others being charged in the indictment include Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange (the U.S. Issuer), and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the alleged bribery scheme.

“As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors,” stated United States Attorney Breon Peace.

“The case involves a lucrative arrangement for Adani Green Energy Ltd. And another firm to sell 12 gigawatts of solar power to the Indian government — enough to light millions of homes and businesses. The indictment paints Adani and his co-defendants as playing two sides of the deal. It accuses them of portraying it as rosy and above-board to Wall Street investors who poured several billion dollars into the project over the last five years while, back in India, they were paying or planning to pay about USD 265 million in bribes to government officials to help secure billions of dollars’ worth of contracts and financing,” AP has reported.

“The business executives allegedly bribed the Indian government to finance lucrative contracts designed to benefit their businesses. Adani and other defendants also defrauded investors by raising capital on the basis of false statements about bribery and corruption, while still other defendants allegedly attempted to conceal the bribery conspiracy by obstructing the government’s investigation,” stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Dennehy.

With Agency Inputs