(Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a subpoena to Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who faces U.S. bribery charges related to a federal indictment against him, a court said.
The SEC is suing the head of the Adani Group and his nephew Sagar Adani, alleging that hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes were taken to help an Adani company while “falsely advertising the company’s compliance with anti-bribery principles and laws in relation to 750 million dollar bond offering”.
The subpoena requires a response within 21 days, according to Wednesday’s filing in federal court in the Eastern District of New York. The SEC’s lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary penalties and restrictions on Adanas from serving as officers of publicly traded companies.
Adani Group representatives did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Sunday.
The group denied the criminal charges as “baseless”. The group’s chief financial officer said the indictment was linked to one of his contracts Adani Green Energy (NS:) which makes up around 10% of its business and that no other company in the conglomerate has been accused of wrongdoing.
Federal prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for Gautam and Sagar Adani, alleging they were involved in a $265 million scheme to bribe Indian officials to secure power supply deals.
Authorities said Adani and seven other defendants, including Sagar’s nephew, agreed to bribe Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to bring in $2 billion in profits over 20 years and develop India’s largest solar power project.
The crisis is the second in two years to hit the ports-to-power group founded by Adani, 62, one of the world’s richest men. The fallout was felt immediately, as billions of dollars were wiped from the market value of Adani Group companies and Kenya’s president canceled a massive airport project with the group.