Adanis knew of US probe when they sold bribe-linked assets to TotalEnergies, prosecutors say
1:17 pm Friday, November 22nd, 2024
By America Hernandez
PARIS (Reuters) – Gautam and Sagar Adani knew their renewable energy company was under U.S. investigation for suspected bribery when they sold part of India’s largest solar park to France’s TotalEnergies, prosecutors allege in legal documents reviewed by Reuters.
TotalEnergies did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday on whether it knew the Adanis were being probed by U.S authorities over an alleged bribery and fraud scheme when it bought the Khavda solar stake.
U.S. prosecutors on Thursday charged eight people – including Indian tycoon Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and the former CEO of Adani Green Energy Limited — with promising and then making improper payments to Indian officials between July 2021 and 2024 to ensure the solar project’s success.
In September 2024, TotalEneriges paid $444 million into a joint venture with Adani Green Energy for a 50% stake in 1.15 gigawatts of solar installations at the Khavda solar park — the project at the heart of the bribery charges.
The French oil and gas company is not named in the criminal case. The Adani Group has called the allegations baseless. It did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment about this story.
According to the U.S. indictment, FBI special agents served Adani Green Energy Executive Director Sagar Adani with a search warrant and grand jury subpoena in March 2023 – more than a year before the sale to TotalEnergies. These documents identified Adani Green Energy, its former CEO Vneet Jaain, and chairman Gautam Adani as under investigation for alleged bribery to obtain business advantages for the firm.
TotalEnergies bought a 20% stake in Adani Green Energy in January 2021 – after the Indian company won what was then the world’s largest solar order, and just months before the alleged payments to officials began.
Sangkaran Ratnam, TotalEnergies’ country chair for India and the French firm’s nominee to the board of directors of Adani Green Energy, did not respond to a request for comment on whether he had been aware of the investigation at the time TotalEnergies bought the stake in the Khavda assets.
(Reporting by America Hernandez in Paris. Editing by Mark Potter)
