Adani gets away with wrongdoing, again

Billionaire businessman Gautam Adani was accused of bribing Indian officials and misleading US investors to secure a solar power plant project in India. The US administration had levelled criminal charges against him and his conglomerate, bribing Indian officials for as much as $265m to secure contracts and lying to US investors to land a solar energy project in India.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has moved to dismiss criminal fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani,Sagar Adani and Vineet Jain, but now with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) withdrawing the charges. But as every where else, Gautam Adani found a way to get out of the mess, this time by pledging $10 billion in investments in the US. The DOJ sent a short letter to Judge Nicholas Garaufis at the US District Court in the Eastern District of New York.

Incidentally, the case was originally brought by the DOJ under the administration of former US President Joe Biden by Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. US prosecutors had alleged that Gautam Adani and his alleged co conspirators raised more than $3bn in the process. Gautam Adani is the 17th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $108bn according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, played a carefully planned masterstroke by appointing  Robert J Giuffra Jr, one of US President Donald Trump’s personal attorneys, in his legal team handling the cases.

 Adani’s investment of $10bn in the US, which would bring in 15,000 jobs to an Iran war ravaged US economy, was a bait even Donald Trump could not refuse.  Cleverly, Adani said that he wanted to invest in the US but could not do so while the cases proceeded. Additionally, the US Department of the Treasury announced a $275million settlement with Adani over alleged sanctions violations involving Iran.  

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also settled a civil suit with Adani last week over the alleged bribes, though the agreement still needs legal approval. If approved by the court, the court would order Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani to pay civil monetary penalties of $6,000,000 and $12,000,000, respectively.

In effect, the strategy Adani group uses in India to deal with contentious projects, deals and the way it finds a ready solution to all problems it faces , it applied with equal élan in the US too. For one, corruption is rampant everywhere, including the US. For unscrupulous operators and a master manipulator like Gautam Adani, who enjoys top most political patronage in India, the world is literally in his pocket. So  far, it has always been a win-win for him