Lawyers On Adani Green Clarification: US Charges Have 'Far Lower Impact', 'No Penalties Can Be Levied Yet'

Legal experts have weighed in on Adani Green Energy Ltd.'s clarification regarding the charges filed against its directors by the United States Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Securities fraud will mean that the impact will be far lower in terms of penalties as well," said Sanjay Asher, senior legal partner at Crawford Bayley. “Securities fraud charges will mean SEC will get involved."

Asher also expressed confusion over the initial FCPA allegations, stating, “Not sure why FCPA charges were brought up in the first place." The current charges "have a lower impact than an FCPA charge," he said, suggesting that the situation may not be as severe as initially perceived.

Adani Green issued a statement denying any violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which had been widely reported in the media.

"To my mind, if it is only these three charges, which are security fraud, conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and securities fraud, all three are allegations, the impact of that is much much lesser than the impact of FCA. So from the legal perspective, these three charges have lesser impact than the charges of FCA," Asher added.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court lawyer, HP Ranina, also weighed in on the matter, saying it is "unlikely that any penalties have crystallised so far" and emphasised that "till charges are proven, no penalties can be levied."

Any civil penalties could potentially be "compounded and can be settled" once the charges are resolved, he said. "Don't think anybody will have the ability to fight wrong charges since US courts involved," he added. However, Ranina stressed that “even the current charges need to be proven without reasonable doubt."

"...It also means that Adani group members...are not involved in any foreign corrupt practices therefore this is good news for the Adani group and obviously other charges have to be proved too because they are simply allegations and Adani group has certainly said that they are not involved and these are wrongly applied to them so I think the matter should not be more clear now", he added.

Ranina further emphasised the positive aspect of the situation, noting, “Good sign that top people in the group are not involved.” He also dismissed the political storm brewing in India, stating, “Political storm brewing in India has no meaning since FCPA charges have been dropped.” According to Ranina, "currently, these are just charges and evidence needs to be presented," but the "battle is now more clear" as "everything needs to be proved without reasonable doubt."

The clarification from Adani Green Energy Ltd also points out that the FCPA charges against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, and Vneet Jaain were not there, asserting that the earlier media reports about FCPA violations were incorrect. The company's official statement confirmed that the three directors are not charged with any FCPA violations or conspiracy to obstruct justice. The charges, as per the US DoJ’s indictment, focus on alleged securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and securities fraud, with no involvement in the FCPA-related counts.