Several Adani Group shares, including Adani Enterprises, faced heavy losses and hit their lowest trading limits on Thursday, November 21. This happened after Gautam Adani was accused in New York of being involved in a massive bribery and fraud scheme worth billions of dollars.
US authorities claim that over $250 million in bribes were offered to Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts.
Officials said that, "A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain, executives of an Indian renewable-energy company (the Indian Energy Company), with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements."
They further added, " 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 (the U.S. Issuer), and 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 S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain, involving one of the world’s largest solar energy projects."
Adani Energy Solutions shares dropped 20% to ₹697.70 on the BSE. Similarly, Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports and SEZ shares fell 10% to ₹2,538.20 and ₹1,160.15, respectively. Ambuja Cements shares also declined 10% to ₹494.65, hitting their lower limit.