Adani indictment: US State Department declines comment on disruptions in Indian Parliament

Gautam Adani. File Pic

The US State Department refused to comment on the disruptions in Indian Parliament over the indictment of billionaire Gautam Adani in a US court on charges of bribery. "That is a law enforcement matter," State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at his daily news conference on Monday. He was responding to a question about Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi demanding the immediate arrest of Adani. "Is this something you support, such as the arrest and investigations, charges against Adani" he was asked.

"I would defer to my colleagues at the Department of Justice to speak to it," Miller said. The US authorities have indicted Gautam Adani and seven others including his nephew Sagar Adani, for being part of an alleged USD 265 million bribery scheme. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Monday as opposition parties led by Gandhi's Congress tried to raise the issue of Adani's indictment.

Last week, a five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain, executives of an Indian renewable-energy company with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme. This was done to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements.

The indictment also charges Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It charges Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with a bribery scheme also perpetrated by Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Jaain involving one of the world's largest solar energy projects.

The indictment further alleged that Cabanes, Saurabh, Malhotra and Rupesh conspired to obstruct the grand jury, FBI and US SEC investigations into the Bribery Scheme. The Adani group has denied all charges in the US indictment, calling them baseless.

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