Adani US indictment: What are WhatsApp messages quoted in SEC report – Times of India

US prosecutors have indicted Gautam Adani and his nephew, Sagar Adani, among others, for their alleged involvement in a $265 million (Rs 2,000 crore) bribery case to secure solar power supply contracts in India. According to court records cited by Reuters, arrest warrants have been issued in the US for Gautam and Sagar Adani, with prosecutors planning to hand these warrants to foreign law enforcement. Early Wednesday, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) charged Adanis, former Adani Green CEO Vneet Jaain, and executives from Azure Power and Canadian pension fund CDPQ under the Foreign Corruption Prevention Act (FCPA).
Separately, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Gautam and Sagar Adani with raising funds from US investors through “false and misleading statements.” The SEC alleges they were directly involved in bribing Indian officials to secure contracts benefiting Adani Green.
This account of how the alleged scheme unfolded is reportedly drawn from federal prosecutors’ 54-page criminal indictment of Adani and seven of his associates and two parallel civil SEC complaints. These extensively cite electronic messages between the scheme’s alleged participants. A Reuters report also claims that SEC has quoted WhatsApp chat of Sagar Adani and the Azure CEO in the case.
Sagar Adani and the Azure CEO reportedly discussed the delays in the Solar power project and hinted at bribes on the encrypted messaging application WhatsApp, according to the SEC.
What are the WhatsApp messages being quoted
When the Azure CEO wrote on November 24, 2020, that the local power companies “are being motivated,” Sagar Adani allegedly replied, “Yup … but the optics are very difficult to cover. In February 2021, Sagar Adani allegedly wrote to the CEO, “Just so you know, we have doubled the incentives to push for these acceptances.”
One WhatsApp message dated February 25, 2021, reportedly dealt with the states of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Chhattisgarh as potential purchasers of green power. Sagar Adani wrote: “Just so you know, we have doubled the incentives to push for these acceptances.”

How SEC may have got access to WhatsApp chats

As per Reuters report, during a visit to the United States on March 17, 2023, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents seized Sagar Adani’s electronic devices. The agents reportedly handed him a search warrant from a judge indicating that the US government was investigating potential violations of fraud statutes and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Adani Group trashes charges

Adani Group has trashed the charges, calling them “baseless” and that it would seek “all possible legal recourse.”