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Billionaire Gautam Adani accused of misleading U.S.

investors

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India says no extradition request has been made

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US prosecutor says case is important for market integrity

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. fraud case against

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani appears to be backed by

documents that will help prosecutors make a strong case, legal

experts said, but the tycoon is unlikely to be extradited to

stand trial anytime soon.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn last month 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 U.S. investors by providing reassuring

information about the company's anti-corruption practices.

Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, and another Adani Group

executive were charged with securities fraud and conspiracy.

Five people affiliated with Azure Power Global ( AZREF ), a

formerly-U.S.-listed company also allegedly involved, were

charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices

Act (FCPA).

Azure has said it had cooperated with the investigation and

that those charged were no longer with the company. Adani Group

has called the allegations "baseless" and vowed to seek "all

possible legal recourse."

Gautam Adani is not in custody. He has made at least two

public appearances in India since the indictment, including at a

Dec. 9 event also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to the indictment, prosecutors found ledgers of

the alleged payments on Sagar Adani's cellular phone, which they

called "bribe notes." Prosecutors also said Gautam Adani emailed

himself a copy of a search warrant and grand jury subpoena the

FBI had served on his nephew on March 17, 2023.

Those electronic records could be important pieces of

evidence for prosecutors to try to prove that Sagar Adani and

Gautam Adani knew they misled investors by failing to disclose

the investigation and insisting they had strong anti-corruption

practices when in fact they had paid bribes, experts said.

"The allegations include references to corroborating

material, and that always provides for a stronger case," said

Stephen Reynolds, a former federal prosecutor and current

partner at law firm Day Pitney.

To be sure, prosecutors may face challenges. Gautam Adani

could argue that he was not personally involved in crafting the

statements the company made to investors about its anti-bribery

practices, said Paul Tuchmann, a former federal prosecutor in

Brooklyn and now a partner at law firm Wiggin & Dana.

Prosecutors may also struggle to secure live testimony from

witnesses in India because the process could require assistance

from New Delhi, and the government may be reluctant to

facilitate testimony that could paint Indian officials in an

unfavorable light, said Mark Cohen, a former federal prosecutor

in Brooklyn and current partner at law firm Cohen & Gresser.

India's foreign ministry on Friday referred to a Nov. 29

statement in which it said it had not received any request on

the case from Washington, and called the case a matter between

private firms and the U.S. Justice Department.

The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment on whether

the United States had asked India to extradite Gautam Adani.

'PLAY BY THE RULES'

Both Adani Group and Adani himself have recently made public

statements emphasizing that the conglomerate's executives had

not been charged with violating the FCPA.

Conspiracy to violate the FCPA is punishable by up to five

years behind bars. The fraud charges Gautam Adani and the other

Adani Group defendants face are each punishable by up to 20

years in prison.

Drew Rolle, the deputy chief of the business and securities

fraud section at the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office, said his

office had a responsibility to protect the integrity of U.S.

capital markets.

The office has secured a number of convictions in foreign

bribery cases with U.S. connections. In August, jurors found

Mozambique's former finance minister guilty on fraud and money

laundering conspiracy charges for embezzling loan proceeds he

had told banks were destined for economic development projects.

Rolle said honest companies are harmed when firms like

Adani's allegedly mislead investors.

"It's not only a bribery case, it's an important securities

enforcement case," he said at a Dec. 6 conference in New York

hosted by the Practicing Law Institute. "If you're going to

access our capital markets, you're going to play by the rules."