US Securities and Exchange Commission seeks India's help in Adani fraud probe

Last year, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment accusing Adani of bribing Indian officials to convince them to buy electricity produced by Adani Green Energy , a subsidiary of his Adani Group conglomerate, and then misleading US investors by providing reassuring information about the company's anti-corruption practices.

New York: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has told a federal judge here that its efforts to serve its complaint on Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani in the alleged bribery scheme are “ongoing”, including through a request for assistance to the Indian authorities.

The SEC submitted a status update Tuesday to Judge Nicholas Garaufis at the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York regarding its efforts to serve its complaint on Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani.

The SEC said that both Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani “are located in India, and the SEC’s efforts to serve them there are ongoing, including through a request for assistance to the Indian authorities to effect service under the Hague Service Convention for Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters.”

The SEC said that its complaint dated November 20 last year alleges that Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani violated the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws by “knowingly or recklessly making false and misleading representations concerning Adani Green Energy Ltd in connection with a September 2021 debt offering by Adani Green.

It said that because the “defendants are located in a foreign country, Rule 4(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) governs service of the Summons and Complaint.

FRCP 4(f) contains no set time limit for service, and the SEC may serve Defendants “by any internationally agreed means of service that is reasonably calculated to give notice,”... such as the Hague Service Convention.”

The SEC update, submitted by its Counsel Christopher Colorado, cited a case which notes that service via the Hague Service Convention is one permissible means of serving defendants located in India.

“Since the filing of its Complaint, SEC staff has been working to serve Defendants in accordance with FRCP 4(f). SEC staff has contacted Defendants or their counsel (to the extent SEC staff is aware of such counsel) and has sent them Notices of Lawsuit and Requests for Waiver of Service of Summons, including copies of the Complaint.

"Additionally, under Article 5(a) of the Hague Service Convention, the SEC has requested assistance from India’s Ministry of Law and Justice, the Central Authority for India under the Hague Service Convention."

"That process is ongoing, and the SEC will continue its efforts to serve Defendants in India by the methods prescribed by FRCP 4(f)—including under the Hague Service Convention—and will keep the Court apprised of its progress,” the SEC said.

In November last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission had charged Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global Ltd., for conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme.

In a parallel action, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed criminal charges against Gautam and Sagar Adani and Cabanes, among other individuals connected to Adani Green and Azure Power.

Adani is being indicted by the US Department of Justice for his role in an alleged years-long scheme to pay $250 million (Rs 2173 crore) bribes to Indian officials in exchange for favourable solar power contracts.

The Adani group has said that the allegations by the Department of Justice and the SEC are “baseless” and has denied them.

"The allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied," a spokesperson for the Adani Group had said in a statement.

The spokesperson pointed to a US Department of Justice statement that said "The charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty”.

The group has said that “all possible legal recourse will be sought.”

"The Adani Group has always upheld and is steadfastly committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency and regulatory compliance across all jurisdictions of its operations. We assure our stakeholders, partners and employees that we are a law-abiding organisation, fully compliant with all laws," the spokesperson added.