Adani Green Energy, the world’s largest developer of renewable energy in 2019. The short seller has now been absolved of all blame from the joint Hindenburg-US indictment against its former incorrigible devil/hero-founder Gautam Adani and his chieftains. In November 2024, US officials charged them with a $250 million bribery scheme to obtain power contracts. The indictment further charged that the company’s leadership misled US investors while the company was trying to raise funds. An independent review commissioned by Adani Green Energy did not find any evidence of wrongdoing.
In January 2025, the company appointed independent law firms to conduct a thorough review of the allegations made by US authorities. This forward-looking step was taken to look into possible past non-compliance and verify the strength of the company’s current practices. Adani Green Energy, the review concluded, had done nothing wrong. In doing so, it found no deficiencies or breaches involving the US indictment.
“To uphold the principles of good governance, the holding company appointed independent law firms to perform an independent review to assess and evaluate related non-compliance, if any, in this matter.” – Adani Green Energy
Adani Green Energy’s investors should take heart that the US proceedings aren’t likely to materially affect the holding company. They hope that the bigger Adani Group will be insulated. Though under a heavy legal lens, Gautam Adani and his team can’t be distracted from building their existing business and ongoing development pipeline.
In February 2025, Adani Green was back in the news for all the wrong reasons when they withdrew from two planned wind power projects in Sri Lanka. The decision was taken after consultations with the Government of Sri Lanka to reduce the cost of power generation. For reference, the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo first proposed a cost of $0.08 per kilowatt hour. Today, it hopes to bring that rate down to $0.06 per kilowatt hour or less.
Further, the company has demonstrated sensitivity to changing regional economic conditions by withdrawing from these species-delaying projects. Beyond enhancing reliability, this decision underscores the state’s determination to keep energy solutions affordable and competitive.
Gautam Adani has deftly maneuvered the company through decade’s worth of obstacles during his storied 15-year reign. Today, he remains a central character in the story of America’s expanding renewable energy economy. His leadership and action in this chaotic time underscores his desire to be transparent and follow the law.