There are two parallel cases in the US against billionaire Gautam Adani and others in the alleged “massive bribery scam” that has grabbed global headlines and sent Adani stocks plummeting.
The first is a criminal case in which Adani and his associates face a five-count federal criminal indictment that was unsealed on Wednesday (Thursday, November 21 in India). The investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and it is being prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, and the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division.
The second is a civil complaint filed by the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) on Wednesday (Thursday in India) which seeks permanent injunctions, civil penalties, and officer and director bars. The investigation for this was headed by the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, and the litigation will be led by the agency’s in-house counsel.
Here is all you need to know about the people behind the Adani investigations, including the multiple Indian-Americans involved.
FBI investigation team
* James E Dennehy, assistant director in charge, FBI’s New York Field Office
Dennehy was among the officials who announced the criminal charges against Adani on Wednesday. He was appointed to his current office on September 13 this year.
After serving in the US Marines for seven years, Dennehey had joined the FBI as a special agent in 2002 and worked in counterintelligence cases at the New York Field Office. He rose through the ranks to become the Special-Agent-in-Charge of the agency’s Newark Field Office in July 2022. During his tenure in Newark, he prioritised cybercrime, healthcare fraud, civil rights violations, and violent crime.
* The agency’s investigation is being conducted by the New York Field Office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud and International Corruption Units.
Attorney’s Office for New York’s Eastern District
* Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York
Peace, 53, was also among the officials who announced the criminal charges against Adani. He assumed his current office in 2021. Among his successful prosecutions was that of pro-Donald Trump social media influencer Douglass Mackey for conspiring to interfere in the 2016 elections by encouraging Twitter (now X) users who supported Hillary Clinton to vote via text message.
Peace studied law at University of California, Berkeley and the New York University School of Law. He has been practicing law for over two decades, and has also taught law at the NYU law school for a brief while.
“My Office is committed to rooting out corruption in the international marketplace and protecting investors from those who seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the integrity of our financial markets,” Peace said in a statement on Wednesday.
* The case will be prosecuted by Assistant US Attorneys Sarah M Evans (Deputy Chief of the Business and Securities Fraud Section at US Attorney’s Office for New York’s Eastern District), Matthew R Galeotti (also in the Business and Security Fraud Section, with an expertise in cases involving foreign corruption), and Jessica K Weigel.
DoJ’s Criminal Division, Fraud Section
* Lisa H Miller, deputy assistant Attorney General for DoJ’s Criminal Division
Miller was the third official who announced the charges against Adani. Since being appointed to her present position in 2021, she has been overseeing the work of more than 200 prosecutors in the Criminal Division’s Fraud and Appellate Sections.
Before her current appointment, Miller had served as the Chief of the Market Integrity & Major Frauds Unit within the Fraud Section, supervising 45 white-collar prosecutors as they conducted investigations and prosecutions of some of the most significant securities, commodities, government procurement, cryptocurrency/digital asset, and pandemic fraud matters across the US.
* Shy Jackson of the Criminal Division, who is a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit (FCPA) prosecutor, and Andrew Tyler of the Fraud Section’s Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit will be prosecuting the case.
* The prosecutors will be assisted by paralegals specialists Liam McNett (who assists in white collar investigations and prosecutions that include wire fraud, securities fraud, insider trading, money laundering, and FCPA violations), Angelina Tyler (a document management analyst), and Nadiya Singh (a foreign corruption paralegal).
SEC’s investigation, litigation team
* Sanjay Wadhwa, acting director, Division of Enforcement
Wadhwa, an Indian-American, heads the US regulator’s Enforcement Division, which oversees the agency’s civil law enforcement function by “conducting investigations into possible securities law violations, filing enforcement actions against wrongdoers, and returning money to harmed investors whenever possible”. The 21-year agency veteran took over this post on October 11 this year, replacing Gurbir S Grewal, the former New Jersey Attorney General who had led the division since 2021.
Wadhwa, who studied law at the South Texas College of Law Houston and the New York University School of Law, used to serve as a deputy to Grewal. He had joined the SEC in 2003 as a staff attorney and rose to become the co-head of enforcement in the New York office, overseeing the day-to-day functions of its enforcement program. He previously served in roles such as deputy chief of the Market Abuse Unit and assistant director of the New York office. Prior to his career in the SEC, he was a tax associate.
In a statement on Wednesday, he said that “We [the SEC] will continue to vigorously pursue and hold individuals, including senior corporate officers and directors, accountable when they violate our securities laws.”
* Tejal D Shah, associate regional director in the New York office, Enforcement Division
As the head of SEC’s enforcement programme in the New York office, Shah is the official overseeing the agency’s investigation into Adani’s alleged bribery scam. She began her career in the SEC in 2014, and has risen up the ranks in the agency’s enforcement division since then. Prior to becoming an associate director last year, Shah served as senior special counsel to the Enforcement Director and Deputy Director.
Prior to joining the SEC in 2014, she practiced law with Cooley LLP. She studied law at the NYU School of Law after obtaining a BSc in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University in 2003.
* The SEC investigation into Adani Green is being conducted by Enforcement Division counsels Nicholas Karasimas, Stewart ‘Stew’ Gilson, Christopher M Colorado, and Alison Conn. Karasimas, Gilson, and Colorado will also lead SEC’s litigation. They will be supervised by Co-Regional Trial Counsel Daniel Loss.
* The SEC’s FCPA investigation is being conducted by Eric Heining, Patrick Noone, and Paul Block of the agency’s FCPA Unit. The litigation will be led by Boston Regional Office Trial Counsel Martin Healey.
