Adani Group calls report on bribery probe by US prosecutors 'false'

Adani Group companies haven’t received any notice from the US Department of Justice regarding a probe into whether the Indian conglomerate may have engaged in bribery, according to exchange filings.

Bloomberg News reported last week, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter, that US prosecutors have widened their probe of the Adani Group to focus on whether an Adani entity may have engaged in bribery as well as the conduct of the conglomerate’s billionaire founder Gautam Adani.

The probe, which is also looking at Indian renewable energy company Azure Power Global Ltd., is being handled by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Justice Department’s fraud unit in Washington, the people said.

Gautam Adani, his company and Azure haven’t been charged with wrongdoing by the DOJ, and investigations don’t always lead to prosecutions. The DOJ can choose to pursue its investigations without notifying the parties.

Adani companies haven’t received “any notice from the Department of Justice of US in respect of the allegation referred to in the said article,” listed Adani companies including Adani Enterprises Ltd. and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. said in separate filings Monday. They called the report “false.”

Several of Adani Group’s dollar bonds fell the most in more than a year on Monday, and most of the group’s shares declined.

“We are not aware of any investigation against our chairman,” Adani Group said in an earlier response to questions from Bloomberg News. The Group had further said, “As a business group that operates with the highest standards of governance, we are subject to and fully compliant with anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws in India and other countries.”