(Bloomberg) -- US bribery charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani have ensnared one of Canada's largest public pension managers, deepening its embarrassment over a renewable-energy investment that went sour.
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Three former employees of Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec were charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act on Wednesday. The list of the accused includes Cyril Cabanes, a former managing director in CDPQ's Asia-Pacific infrastructure unit, as well as Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, who also worked for the fund manager.
US prosecutors allege that defendants including Adani, one of the world's richest people, promised to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts, and that they concealed the plan as they sought to raise money from US investors.
The criminal indictment and a related case from the Securities and Exchange Commission allege that executives at Adani Green Energy Ltd. were among those who paid bribes to state officials. Some of the bribes were ultimately paid, at least indirectly, by Azure Power Global Ltd., a builder and operator of solar-power projects that was a partner of Adani Green, according to the SEC.
The regulator's complaint says that Cabanes "schemed" with others to make those payments possible while he was serving as an employee of CDPQ and a board member of Azure Power.
CDPQ is Azure's majority shareholder, and Cabanes and Malhotra represented the money manager on the solar company's board until October 2023, when they resigned.
Azure said it's cooperating with US authorities on the investigation. The shares were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and now trade over the counter, having lost almost all of their value.
"CDPQ is aware of charges filed in the US against certain former employees," a spokesperson for the Quebec pension manager said by email. "Those employees were all terminated in 2023, and CDPQ is cooperating with US authorities." The spokesperson declined further comment.
Reluctant Governments
Prosecutors claim that executives attached to Adani Green paid or promised the bribes to overcome the reluctance of Indian state governments to sign power purchase agreements -- contracts that were essential to making the numbers work on new solar manufacturing projects.