Gautam Adani, head of India’s Adani Group, his nephew Sagar Adani and six others face charges in the United States in a multibillion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme.

Prosecutors announced the charges on Wednesday, alleging that the group bribed Indian officials to secure solar energy contracts.

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As per the case made out by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Gautam Adani has been charged with allegedly “defrauding American investors and bribing officials”.

Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, 30, executives of Adani Green Energy, and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global Ltd were charged with “conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud, as well as substantive securities fraud, for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions through false and misleading statements”.

The indictment says Adani and the others paid approximately USD 265 million in bribes. They expected these contracts to generate USD 2 billion in profit over two decades. Prosecutors claim some involved in the scheme used code names like “Numero uno” and “the big man” to refer to Gautam Adani.

The indictment also alleges Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, and another executive, Vneet Jaain, hid the bribery from lenders and investors to secure over USD 3 billion in loans and bonds for Adani Green Energy.

The charges fall under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a US law against bribery in foreign business dealings.

Speaking on the charges levied, Adani Green released a statement saying, “The United States Department of Justice and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission have issued a criminal indictment and brought a civil complaint, respectively, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, against our Board members, Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani.”

“The United States Department of Justice has also included our Board member, Vneet Jaain, in such a criminal indictment. In light of these developments, our subsidiaries have presently decided not to proceed with the proposed USD-denominated bond offerings,” it added.

As per the reports, arrest warrants have been issued for Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed related civil charges against the two men and another individual, Cyril Cabanes.

As the news surfaced, the shares of Adani Enterprises Ltd dwindled as much as 23% in Thursday’s trade to hit a day-low value of Rs 2,171.60.

The stock was last seen trading 20.23% lower at Rs 2,249.80.