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The Adani Group was set to invest $736m to construct power lines
Kenya will no longer consider the bids for two major contracts - one for the construction of power lines - from a company owned by Indias second wealthiest man who is now wanted by the US for alleged fraud tied to solar energy contracts.
On Thursday (21 November), Kenyas President William Ruto cancelled the deals-in-the-making involving Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, after he was indicted for fraud by US prosecutors 24 hours earlier.
The Adani Group was set to invest $1.85 billion in Kenyas main airport in exchange for a contract to run it for 30 years, as well as a $736m deal with the energy ministry to construct power lines.
Before Ruto had pulled the plug on the contracts, the Adani proposal for the power lines included the construction of 206km 400kV Gilgil-Thika-Malaa -Konza, 400/220/132 kV substation at Rongai and 95km 220kV Rongai-Keringet-Chemosit line was at the Draft Project Agreement
stage.
This included, among others, approval of projects and financial risk assessment report prepared by a negotiating team, clearance of the draft project agreement by the Attorney-General and notification of award to the Cabinet by the contracting authority.
Charged by US prosecutors
On Wednesday 20 November, Adani was charged with fraud by US prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating a $250m bribery scheme linked to major solar energy contracts and concealing it to raise money in the US.
The Adani Group has denied the allegations, describing them as "baseless."
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a press statement on Wednesday that a five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain, executives of an Indian renewable-energy company (the Indian Energy Company), "with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements."
"As alleged in the indictment, between approximately 2020 and 2024, the defendants agreed to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts with the Indian government, which were projected to generate more than $2 billion in profits after tax over an approximately 20-year period (the Bribery Scheme)/ said the DOJ. |
