Gautam Adani, ranked the second richest man in India and the 22nd richest man in the world by Forbes, was indicted in New York on Nov. 20 on charges rising from the Foreign Corrupt Practices (FCP) Act, a U.S. anti-bribery law. A few days later, federal prosecutors issued arrest warrants for him and five associates on Nov. 24. However, Adani remains in India, and none of the accused are in custody.
Port workers in Kenya protest against a bid by an Indian billionaire to buy the port and its facilities. Kenyan President William Ruto cancelled the deal after news that Adani had been indicted.
Specifically, Adani and his associates were charged with giving Indian officials $250 million to purchase power from a green energy source they controlled, which would have generated $2 billion in profit for their company.
Adani and four of his associates are Indian citizens; a fifth associate, a French citizen, lives in Singapore. He is a close political and financial ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Department of Justice claims that since some of the transactions used wire transfers that went through New York, the FCP Act could be applied, even though all the participants in this scheme were physically located in India and were not U.S. citizens.
These indictments — an arrogant display of U. S. financial power — have had a very deleterious effect on the Adani Group’s international projects.