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Adani Green, the renewable energy business owned by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, said it was aware of a US government investigation into a “third party” following a report that alleged his conglomerate was subject to a bribery probe.
The company, part of the tycoon’s sprawling infrastructure empire, said on Tuesday that it had “no relationship with the said third party” that was being looked into by the US Department of Justice for “potential violations” of anti-corruption laws. Adani Green added that it had not received any notice from the DoJ about an investigation.
The comments are the first to acknowledge the existence of a probe after Bloomberg News last week reported that US prosecutors were expanding an investigation into potential payments by an Adani company and individuals linked to the group, including its founder, to Indian officials over an energy project.
A person close to the US investigation told the Financial Times that federal prosecutors had widened their probe to include bribery and Gautam Adani, without elaborating. The DoJ declined to comment.
The allegations have threatened to reignite a public relations crisis for Adani. The group spent much of last year trying to move past the damaging claims of accounting fraud and stock market manipulation made by US short seller Hindenburg Research, which erased billions of dollars from its market value.
Other Adani companies, including its flagship ports business, on Monday said the report was “false” following a share and bond sell-off across the firms. Following the Bloomberg report last week, Adani Group said the company was “not aware of any investigation against our chairman”.
Adani Group did not immediately respond to requests for further details on Tuesday. The conglomerate has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing when asked about the claims made by Hindenburg.
Since the short seller’s report was released last year, Adani stocks have largely recovered. In January, India’s Supreme Court declined to escalate a probe into Gautam Adani’s conglomerate that would have transferred it to a special investigative unit.
India’s opposition parties have attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s perceived close relationship with Gautam Adani ahead of national elections commencing next month.
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