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Gautam Adani said that “every attack makes us stronger” in his first public remarks about the US corruption charges he is facing in connection with a bribery scheme.
The Department of Justice indicted Adani and seven others on 20 November.
The 62-year-old Indian billionaire said on Saturday that his infrastructure group was committed to “world-class regulatory compliance” in remarks in Jaipur, where he was addressing a gems and jewellery awards event.
“This is not the first time we have faced such challenges,” Adani said. “What I can tell you is that every attack makes us stronger and every obstacle becomes a stepping stone.”
Adani was indicted for securities fraud alongside executives of his Adani Green Energy subsidiary and former employees of a Canadian pension fund in connection with a scheme under which US federal prosecutors allege that more than $250mn in bribes were “offered and promised” in 2020-24 to obtain lucrative solar power contracts in five Indian states and territories.
His group has rejected the charges, which were announced alongside a parallel Securities and Exchange Commission civil complaint, as “baseless”.
The news knocked billions of dollars off his 10 listed companies’ share prices and presented the Adani group with its worst reputational crisis since a January 2023 report by short seller group Hindenburg Research, which accused the group of share price manipulation and accounting fraud.
Despite what Adani called “vested reporting” on his group’s activities, he said that no one from his group had been charged with any violation of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or “any conspiracy to obstruct justice”.
“In today’s world, negativity spreads faster than facts,” Adani said. “As we work through the legal process, I want to reconfirm our absolute commitment to world-class regulatory compliance.”
After the US charges this week, some of the Adani group’s foreign partners sought to distance themselves from it. France’s TotalEnergies paused investments in joint energy projects with the Indian conglomerate, which it said had not informed it about the corruption probe.
The US International Development Finance Corporation, which had committed a $553mn loan to support the construction and operation of an Adani-backed container terminal project in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, said it had not disbursed any funds yet and it was “actively assessing the ramifications” of the DOJ announcement.
Narendra Modi’s government this week also sought to put the case at arm’s length. At a briefing on Friday by the ministry of external affairs, a spokesperson said it was “a legal matter involving private firms and individuals and the US Department of Justice”.
Modi’s political opponents, who have seized on Adani’s past ties with the prime minister to attack him, disrupted parliament this week, demanding an investigation into the allegations.
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