Congress calls for JPC into Adani group transactions after US prosecutors’ charge

NEW DELHI: After a US District Court in New York charged the chairman of the Adani Group, Gautam Adani, linking him and others to an alleged bribery and fraud scheme, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said that it vindicated the demand that the Congress was making for a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation into the various alleged scams.

In a post on X, Jairam said, “The indictment of Gautam Adani and others by the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) of the US vindicates the demand that the Indian National Congress has been making since Jan 2023 for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) investigation into the various Modani scams. The INC had asked a hundred questions in its Hum Adani ke Hain (HAHK) series bringing out the various dimensions of these scams and of the intimate nexus that has existed between the PM and his favourite businessman. These questions have remained unanswered”.

The five-count indictment of Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and others unsealed by the US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York has revealed more shocking details about Adani’s criminal activities. It alleges that they paid over $250 million (Rs 2,100 crore) in bribes to… https://t.co/PTcjMzLwBh

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) November 21, 2024

The Congress leader also mentioned that the SEC’s actions also cast a poor light on the manner in which its “Indian counterpart, namely SEBI”, has gone about investigating alleged violations of securities and other laws by the Adani Group.

“The INC reiterates its demand for a JPC in the transactions of the Adani Group, which is leading to growing monopolization in key sectors of the Indian economy, fuelling inflation, and posing huge foreign policy challenges as well, especially in our neighbourhood,” Jairam Ramesh said further.

According to the US 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 US investors and global financial institutions based on false and misleading statements”.

The indictment also charges Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange (the US 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 US and international investors”, stated United States Attorney Breon Peace.

The indictment also accuses the executive of obstructing investigations by the FBI, Department of Justice (DOJ), and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The US Attorney’s office says that the charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI New York’s Corporate, Securities and Commodities Fraud and International Corruption Units. The government’s case is being handled by the Business and Securities Fraud Section of the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

There has been no response so far from the office of Gautam Adani or others named in the indictment. (ANI)