Agencies
French oil giant TotalEnergies SE announced on Monday it would stop financial contributions to its Adani Group investments following last week’s indictment, saying it was not informed of a U.S. investigation into possible bribery and corruption at Adani Green Energy Limited.
The Indian business group’s billionaire chairman, Gautam Adani, and seven other people were last week charged by U.S. authorities with agreeing to pay around $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials.
The charges related to alleged payments to obtain contracts that could yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years, as well as to develop India’s largest solar power project.
The charges also included making misleading statements to the public despite being made aware of the U.S. investigation in 2023.The Adani Group has said the accusations, as well as those leveled by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a parallel civil case, are baseless and that it will seek "all possible legal recourse.” India’s Parliament was suspended on Monday after disruption by lawmakers demanding a discussion on the allegations while the crisis continued to hurt the group founded by Adani, 62, one of the world’s richest people.TotalEnergies, which has a 20% stake in Adani Green Energy Ltd, the company at the center of the case, said on Monday that it would freeze further payments into the group.
"Until such time when the accusations against the Adani group individuals and their consequences have been clarified, TotalEnergies will not make any new financial contribution as part of its investments in the Adani group of companies,” the company said in a statement.TotalEnergies rejects corruption in any form, it said, adding that it "was not made aware of the existence of an investigation into the alleged corruption scheme.” Shares of Adani Green Energy plunged more than 11% on Monday after the TotalEnergies statement before recovering to close 7.9% lower, while Adani Total Gas ended down 1.4%.
The Adani group’s projects and businesses span the globe and some of them have come under the spotlight since the indictment in the U.S.Last week, Kenyan President William Ruto canceled a procurement process that had been expected to award control of the country’s main airport to Adani.
In Bangladesh, a panel examining power generation contracts, including one with Adani Power, urged the interim government to hire a global legal firm to ensure a thorough and transparent investigation into previous deals.