Who is Gautam Adani? A look at the billionaire’s rise and the US bribery charges shaking his business empire
The meteoric rise in the share prices of Adani’s units—the flagship Adani Enterprises rose more than 1,000 percent in five years—helped make the conglomerate staggeringly wealthy and fund further expansion. Two years ago, Adani executed a hostile takeover of broadcaster NDTV, a television news service considered one of the few media outlets willing to outwardly criticise Modi.
It further charges Adani and seven other officials with lying about the bribery in order to raise capital from international investors, including those in the United States. But it has not otherwise commented on the allegations against the tycoon or his subordinates, none of whom have been taken into custody.
He added that the indictment demonstrated what he called the “abject failure” of the Securities and Exchange Board of India to properly investigate Adani Group in the past.Last year, Hindenburg Research—an activist US investment group that bets on stocks falling—accused Adani Group of committing “a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades”.