How Adani’s indictment rocked his empire and what comes next

Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest people, was in good spirits Wednesday evening. Earlier in the day, the Indian billionaire’s green energy business had raised $600 million through a bond sale, reports Bloomberg. Before heading to bed in the city of Ahmedabad, he relaxed by playing a card game with his wife, according to a person close to him.

But around 3am, a colleague delivered some shocking news: The US had charged Adani and several associates with fraud in a sprawling criminal investigation. Within minutes, senior executives from the Adani Group assembled on conference calls and in the conglomerate’s headquarters in western India. Federal prosecutors in New York had accused Adani and his colleagues of lying to US investors about their anti-bribery practices while promising more than $250 million of bribes to Indian officials. To cover their tracks, collaborators used code names for Adani, referring to him as “the big man” and “numero uno”, the indictment said.

As the rest of India woke up on Thursday, Adani was apparently still unsure whether releasing a statement would even be a good idea. When stock markets opened in Mumbai, Adani Group companies’ shares plunged. The conglomerate scrapped the planned $600 million bond sale. By midday, the group had denied all accusations of misconduct by its executives and threatened legal action. What happens next for Adani, 62, and his empire is unclear.

Political controversy is likely in the months ahead, with a tussle over possible extradition. US President-elect Donald Trump will soon be in a position to cut a deal with India to make the matter go away, if he chooses. Key figures in Trump’s orbit see India, and the Adani Group more specifically, as important partners to push against Chinese hegemony. Unrelated to Wednesday’s charges, Trump’s family members have visited Adani’s home in Ahmedabad, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named discussing sensitive information.

In any case, prosecution would take months, if not years, meaning that it will fall to Trump’s Justice Department to determine how to proceed.

But for now, the implications could reverberate beyond the group and its founder, potentially affecting the global banks that lend to it, threatening its overseas expansion and tarnishing by association the reputation of other Indian companies.

“I suspect this will have a larger impact on Adani’s global growth ambitions,” said Rick Rossow, chair on India and Emerging Asia Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In addition, “a case like this could fan lingering concerns in India that the United States and other western nations seek to slow India’s rise.”

Over the years, global investors and banks parked billions of dollars in the Adani Group, helping transform the commodity trading business into one of India’s most diversified conglomerates. Today, the group’s business interests span ports, weapons and renewable energy. With projects stretching from Vietnam to Israel, the Adani Group’s overseas endeavours have become the closest proxy India has to China’s belt-and-road initiative. Even after Thursday’s stock slump, Gautam Adani’s personal fortune was at $72 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

On his swift ascent to the upper ranks of the world’s rich list, Adani stressed a policy of “zero tolerance” for bribery. But the group’s image was called into question when US-based short seller Hindenburg Research published a damning report in January 2023, causing a plunge in its companies’ shares. The Adani Group denied any wrongdoing.

Then the stocks recovered, until Wednesday’s five-count indictment from the Eastern District of New York sent them tumbling again. Between 2020 and 2024, Adani and several of his employees allegedly hid their fraud as they collected tens of millions of dollars from US-based investors, according to the indictment. Prosecutors claim that top executives attached to Adani Green Energy Ltd. created PowerPoints detailing how to cover up the alleged bribes, which were promised to government officials in the state of Andhra Pradesh to secure solar energy contracts. Adani, whose personal fortune at one point made him Asia’s richest man, pulled the strings, US law enforcement said.