Adani Group shares faced sharp falls in early trade on Thursday as Gautam Adani has been indicted by US prosecutors.

Shares of Adani Group companies fell by up to 20% on Thursday following the indictment in the US against Gautam Adani and seven others. The charges involve multibillion-dollar bribery and fraud, including allegations of bribing Indian officials to secure solar power contracts and defrauding American investors.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the charges on Wednesday. In response, Adani Group also withdrew a planned $600 million bond offering.

Adani Group shares fall

Shares in the group’s flagship Adani Enterprises plunged 20 percent, Adani Energy Solutions fell 20 percent, Adani Green Energy plunged 19.17 percent, Adani Total Gas fell 18.14 percent, Adani Power fell 17.79 percent and Adani Ports plunged percent on the BSE.

Also, Ambuja Cements burst 14.99 percent, ACC fell 14.54 percent, NDTV lost 14.37 percent and Adani Wilmar retreated 10 percent.

Some of the group companies also reached their lowest trading limit for the day.

In the stock market, the BSE benchmark Sensex was trading 547.76 points lower at 77,030.62 in morning trade and the NSE Nifty was down 219.10 points at 23,306.45.

US Attorneys indict Adani

U.S. prosecutors charged Adani, 62, his nephew Sagar and other defendants with paying more than $250 million in bribes between 2020 and 2024 to Indian government officials to win solar power contracts on terms that could potentially bring in more than $2 billion in profits.

This, they claimed, was hidden from the US banks and investors from whom the Adani group raised billions of dollars for the project. US law allows foreign corruption charges to be pursued if they involve certain links to US investors or markets.

“The defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars,” Breon Peace, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, who prosecuted the case, said in a statement.

Adani, chairman of ports-to-energy Adani Group, his nephew Sagar R Adani, who is chief executive of the conglomerate’s renewable energy arm Adani Green Energy Ltd, and its former CEO Vneet Jaain were charged with securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.

Adanis was also charged in a civil suit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

(With inputs from PTI)