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Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been charged by federal prosecutors in New York in connection with an alleged years-long scheme to bribe Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms on solar power contracts projected to bring in more than $2bn in profit.

The 62-year-old tycoon, who chairs the multinational conglomerate Adani Group and has been a vocal supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was indicted in Brooklyn on charges including securities fraud alongside seven others, including executives of Adani energy subsidiaries and former employees of a Canadian pension fund.

His nephew Sagar Adani, who is the executive director at a renewables company founded by Gautam Adani, is also among the defendants.

US prosecutors said more than $250mn in bribes were paid between 2020 and 2024 to people in the Indian government as part of the scheme, which was allegedly concealed from the US banks and investors from which they raised billions of dollars.

They claimed that Gautam Adani met with an Indian official to “advance” the scheme.

The US attorney’s office in Brooklyn also charged three former employees of large Canadian pension fund CDPQ in connection with the alleged scheme, saying they obstructed an investigation into the bribes by deleting emails and agreeing to provide false information to the US government. CDPQ, which invests in infrastructure projects, is a shareholder in Adani companies.

The indictments threaten to reignite a reputational crisis for Adani Group, which has been trying to move past claims of accounting fraud and stock market manipulation made last year by US short seller Hindenburg Research.

“This indictment alleges schemes to pay over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials,” US deputy assistant attorney-general Lisa Miller said. “These offences were allegedly committed by senior executives and directors to obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors.”

Prosecutors further alleged that the defendants “extensively documented their corrupt efforts” on mobile phones, on PowerPoint presentations and in Excel spreadsheets “that summarised various options for paying and concealing bribe payments”.

In a parallel civil lawsuit, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said the alleged bribes were paid in order to “secure [the Indian government’s] commitment to purchase energy at above-market rates that would benefit Adani Green and Azure Power”, two renewable energy companies in India.

Adani Green, which is building one of the largest solar plants in the world at Khavda in India’s western state of Gujarat, raised more than $175mn from US investors as part of a $750mn corporate bond while the scheme was ongoing, US regulators said.

Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani allegedly “induced US investors to buy Adani Green bonds through an offering process that misrepresented not only that Adani Green had a robust anti-bribery compliance programme but also that the company’s senior management had not and would not pay or promise to pay bribes”, said Sanjay Wadhwa, acting director at the SEC’s enforcement division. 

According to the regulator’s complaint, Sagar Adani allegedly told Azure executives and others about “incentives”, or bribes, he had been proposing to “motivate” state officials to agree contracts with the Indian government’s arm responsible for implementing renewable energy programmes.

Adani and Azure did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, CDPQ said: “CDPQ is aware of charges filed in the US against certain former employees. Those employees were all terminated in 2023 and CDPQ is co-operating with US authorities. In light of the pending cases, we have no further comment at this time.”

The Indian group’s founder has over the past two decades built Adani into one of India’s most formidable industrial groups, diversifying from its core ports and trading business into mining, airports, coal and renewable power.

Outside India it has built or bid for power, port and other infrastructure projects in several countries, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Israel, where it operates the port of Haifa.

In a post on X congratulating Donald Trump on his US election victory earlier this month, Adani said his group was “committed to leveraging its global expertise” and would invest $10bn in American energy security and infrastructure projects as part of the partnership between India and the US, with the aim of creating up to 15,000 jobs.

Adani’s rise in business, first in Gujarat then nationally, has coincided with the Indian state’s drive to harness private-sector expertise and capital to develop neglected transport and other infrastructure, which has accelerated during Modi’s decade in power.

As shares of his listed companies rose, in 2022 Adani briefly overtook rival billionaire Mukesh Ambani to become Asia’s richest man. 

The Indian National Congress party’s Rahul Gandhi, who became India’s opposition leader after this year’s general election, called for an investigation after the Hindenburg allegations and questioned Adani’s record of winning government tenders, as well as his close ties with ruling politicians including Modi, who is also from Gujarat.

The Adani Group dismissed the Hindenburg report as an “attack on India” and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. His companies’ share prices have since rebounded.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The Spanish environment minister nominated for a top EU job has blamed the “incompetence” of regional officials for the death and destruction caused by recent floods as recriminations from the opposition delay her appointment in Brussels.

Teresa Ribera, a Socialist politician, was rebuked by opposition lawmakers on Wednesday for waiting more than three weeks since the floods to address the national parliament. Attacks by the conservative People’s party had threatened to delay a vote on the new European Commission scheduled to take office on December 1.

While disaster management in Spain is led by the regions, Ribera has been implicated by the PP because her ministry oversees the state weather agency and a river basin authority charged with supplying critical data on rainfall and flood risks.

Seeking to turn the tables, Ribera berated PP lawmakers for disrespecting public servants at those bodies and instead “trying to blame them for the incompetence of those responsible for civil protection and emergencies” in the Valencia regional government.

Carlos Mazón, head of the Valencia government, has come under fire for attending a three-hour lunch on the day of the disaster, when his government sent emergency alerts to mobile phones only after some towns and villages had already been swamped.

Last week, Mazón avoided any reference to his lunch in an appearance before the regional parliament but blamed the local river basin authority for a “two-and-a-half hour information blackout” about surging river levels during the afternoon.

Ribera said there was “never” such a blackout and cited dozens of messages that were sent to Valencia’s emergency managers.

“Protocols, regulations and codes must be adapted to the climate risk,” she said, “but all the necessary information is of little use if the person who is meant to respond to it does not know how to do so”.

The death toll from the floods on October 29 stands at 219, most of whom perished in Valencia, while 8 people remain missing.

Alluding to climate change scepticism in parts of the Spanish right, Ribera said: “If you consider this to be climate dogmatism, if you consider the information to be unreliable, if you mock the [weather agency’s] red warnings, it is very difficult to draw conclusions that will prepare us for the next calamity.”

The disaster has turned Ribera into a target for criticism from the centre-right European People’s party in Brussels.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen nominated Ribera to be the most senior Socialist in her new commission, promising her a powerful new competition and environment portfolio.

Following her appearance, the EPP criticised her for “avoiding” repeated questions about quitting. But the party later on Wednesday agreed with the Socialists and liberal Renew group to approve her and the rest of the candidates for the new Commission.

A spokesman said she would have to resign if subjected to formal investigation.

Ribera has already been named in at least two lawsuits over her role, one launched by a hard-right group and another by an anti-establishment political party.

But a Spanish government official dismissed the EPP’s demand as nonsensical. The commission’s code of conduct contained no such requirement for resignations, the official noted, adding that commissioners in the past had carried on in their roles while under investigation in their home countries.

Additional reporting by Alice Hancock in Brussels