Adani bribery charges spark calls for review of Australian coal mine

Bribery charges against Indian coal baron Gautam Adani have sparked calls for an urgent review of Adani Group’s giant coal mine in central Queensland and intensified warnings for Australian superannuation investors holding shares in the company.

Adani, the billionaire chair of Adani Group and one of the world’s richest men, was indicted in New York this week in connection with an alleged multibillion-dollar scheme to bribe Indian officials in return for favourable solar power contracts between 2020 and 2024.

Gautam Adani is worth $US69.8 billion, according to Forbes magazine, making him the world’s 22nd-richest person.Credit: Bloomberg

News of the charges raised calls from Australian Greens senator Larissa Waters for an immediate rethink of Adani Group’s suitability to keep operating the Carmichael coal mine in Queensland, and condemnation of what she said amounted to billions of dollars the project received from governments.

“Federal and state governments should never have approved Adani’s coal mine in an age of climate crisis, and they should never have provided billions of dollars in taxpayer grants and subsidies for this dodgy company to mine for coal on sacred First Nations land,” she said.

“The Greens back the calls for the environmental approval to be reconsidered.”

Queensland Mines Minister Dale Last said he had contacted Adani’s Australian unit, Bravus, about the risk of disruption to local operations.

“I have sought briefings, including from Bravus, to ascertain whether any operations or jobs could be affected in Queensland,” he said.

Adani on Thursday said the allegations in the United States were “baseless and denied”, while Bravus hit back at the Greens’ lines of attack in Australia. “We wholly reject Senator Waters’ incorrect statements about the approvals, funding and environmental performance of the Carmichael mine,” a Bravus spokesperson said.

The $2.5 billion Carmichael mine had been self-funded and “did not receive any taxpayer loans or subsidies”, the spokesperson added.

“Thousands of Queenslanders are employed at the mine and in our rail-freight business based in Bowen, north Queensland, and our operations make a significant economic contribution to local communities and the state and national accounts,” he said.

The Carmichael coal mine, owned by Adani’s Bravus, was for years the front line of the battle between the coal mining industry and Australians fighting to halt any further expansion of the country’s production of carbon-intensive fossil fuels that are dangerously heating the planet.

The project drew fierce criticism from many high-profile campaigns over coal power’s significant contribution to global warming, the mine’s potential environmental damage, and concerns it would spur more fossil-fuel mining in the Galilee Basin.

However, the project was backed by government leaders as an important source of new jobs and economic activity in the region, and has been mining and exporting coal for more than two years.

Shares in Adani Group companies plunged on Thursday, hammering Australia-listed investment firm GQG Partners, which is heavily invested in Adani and lost nearly 20 per cent of its market value.

GQG, which manages some funds on behalf of Australian industry superannuation giants, said it was monitoring the charges brought against Adani executives.

“Our team is reviewing the emerging details and determining what, if any, actions for our portfolios are appropriate,” it said.

Shareholder activist group Market Forces, an affiliate of Friends of the Earth, said its analysis showed some Australian super funds had upped their stakes in Adani companies during the first half of the year.

“The latest charges add to a long record of controversies for the Adani Group,” Market Forces head of research Axel Dalman said.

“Super funds have no business investing their members’ savings in these morally bankrupt companies.”

According to the charges in New York against Adani and seven other defendants, some conspirators referred privately to Gautam Adani with the code names “Numero uno” and “the big man”, while his nephew, Sagar Adani, allegedly used his phone to track specifics about the bribes.

Prosecutors also said the Adanis and another executive at Adani Green Energy, Vneet Jaain, raised more than $US3 billion in loans and bonds for that company by concealing the corruption from lenders and investors.

The charges come following a tumultuous period for the Indian conglomerate, after US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research last year accused Adani Group of using offshore tax havens improperly, a charge the company denied. The report sparked an approximately $US150 billion meltdown in Adani Group stocks.

Gautam Adani, 62, is worth $US69.8 billion, according to Forbes magazine, making him the world’s 22nd-richest person and India’s second-richest person, behind Reliance Industries chair Mukesh Ambani.

In a statement on Thursday evening, Australian time, Adani Group said the charges were allegations only, and the defendants were presumed innocent until proven guilty. The company said it had always upheld and remained committed to the “highest standards of governance, transparency and regulatory compliance” across all jurisdictions of its operations.

“We assure our stakeholders, partners and employees that we are a law-abiding organisation, fully compliant with all laws,” Adani Group said.

Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King on Thursday said she was taking stock of the allegations, and it was inappropriate to comment on an ongoing legal matter. “I am aware of reports that Gautam Adani has been indicted in the United States over an alleged bribery and concealment scheme,” King said.

With Reuters

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.