Asia's second richest billionaire was prosecuted by the US

According to Bloomberg's ranking, billionaire Gautam Adani is the second richest man in Asia, with his assets before the incident of being prosecuted by the US reaching more than 85 billion USD. Mr. Adani is only behind his compatriot Mukesh Ambani.

According to CNN, billionaire Gautam Adani and seven other executives, including his nephew Sagar Adani, were charged with bribery by the New York Federal Attorney's Office on November 20.

Accordingly, Gautam Adani and other executives were accused of paying bribes of more than 250 million USD to Indian officials in 2020-2024 in exchange for solar power supply contracts, expected to generate 2 billion USD in profits within 20 years.

In 2020, a renewable energy company owned by Mr. Adani won the largest solar power contract ever, supplying 8 gigawatts of power to an Indian state-owned utility. But local utilities were reluctant to pay the state-owned utility’s price. Mr. Adani is accused of bribing Indian officials to convince them to buy the power.

The indictment comes a year after a US stock market short seller accused Adani Group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

Adani Green Energy, a subsidiary of the Adani Group, has raised billions of dollars by making false and misleading statements, which are said to have harmed investors in the country.

The incident caused shares of Adani Group companies to fall 10-20% on November 21 when the indictment was announced, causing the total capitalization to evaporate tens of billions of dollars.

According to Bloomberg Index, as of November 23, Mr. Gautam Adani's assets were only 70.8 billion USD, ranking 23rd in the world . According to Forbes' calculations, as of November 23, Mr. Adani's assets were 56.8 billion USD, ranking 27th in the world.

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Billionaire Gautam Adani. Photo: IndiaToday

Mr. Adani broke out under Prime Minister Modi, once had 150 billion USD

According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Mr. Adani is known as a key ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Adani Group is a conglomerate that builds highways, airports and other infrastructure in India. Over the past decade, the group has grown dramatically thanks to the close coordination of billionaire Gautam Adani with the government to modernize the country's infrastructure, from airports to ports. Adani also made a fortune from importing fuel to maintain the upward trajectory of the economy in the country of 1.4 billion people.

In the second half of 2022, Mr. Gautam Adani was the richest man in India and the 4th richest in the world with a fortune of nearly 150 billion USD. However, in just a short time, in early February 2023, Mr. Adani's assets evaporated sharply, losing 80-90 billion USD when the group faced allegations of fraud and stock manipulation from the Hindenburg report.

Much of Mr. Adani’s fortune has been built in recent years as the group has focused on energy and infrastructure. High coal prices have benefited the company.

Like many other billionaires, Mr. Adani (62 years old) has experienced many business fields, from doing business in the diamond market, producing plastic, importing and exporting goods, developing and operating ports, airports, coal trading... Billionaire Adani's group is currently the largest coal trader in India and the second largest coal producer in this country of a billion people.

Mr. Gautam Adani also directly and indirectly owns shares in many companies listed on the Indian stock market.

More recently, Adani Group has been actively involved in the Modi government's plans to transition India from a fossil fuel economy to cleaner energy sources such as wind and solar power.

The Adani Group empire focuses on green energy, which is also the direction that India prioritizes to meet its long-term economic goals. Gautam Adani has committed to invest 70 billion USD in green energy.

Investing in Vietnam

At the end of 2023, on his X account (Twitter), Indian billionaire Gautam Shantilal Adani shared about a meeting with a Vietnamese USD billionaire to discuss potential business opportunities between India and Vietnam.

According to Nhip song thi truong, Adani Group owns two renewable energy projects worth trillions of VND in Ninh Thuan, including Adani Phuoc Minh and Phuoc Minh wind power project. This group also wants to invest 10 billion USD in Vietnam with many projects in Da Nang, Binh Thuan, Dong Nai, Quang Nam.

Indian billionaire just shook hands with Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong: Once the 4th richest person in the world, energy tycoon Indian billionaire Gautam Adani was once the 4th richest person in the world, number 1 in India with assets of hundreds of billions of USD.