Gautam Adani-led Adani Group, indicted in the US of alleged bribery charges for securing solar energy contracts from Indian government officials, has hired two prominent US law firms including Kirkland & Ellis and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, for its defence in the US court, a report by The Economic Times said, citing sources. The two law firms are recognised as one of the world’s largest litigation firms and are known for representing major corporations in high-stakes cases.
What is the case against Adani Green Energy?
On November 21, the US Attorney’s office in New York released a press release stating that a five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet 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 on the basis of false and misleading statements.
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In a release, Lisa H Miller, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said, “This indictment alleges schemes to pay over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials, to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice.”
In a parallel move, the Securities and Exchange Commission had charged Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, and Cyril Cabanes, with conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme. SEC had filed two complaints in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. In one action, the SEC charged Gautam Adan and his nephew, Sagar Adani, Executive Director of Adani Green’s Board. In the other action, the SEC charged Cyril Cabanes, a former member of Azure Power’s Board of Directors, with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations for his role in the alleged bribery scheme.
SEC’s complaint had stated Gautam and Sagar Adani had orchestrated a bribery scheme that involved paying or promising to pay the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian government officials to secure their commitment to purchase energy at above-market rates that would benefit Adani Green and Azure Power.
Adani Green had,
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