Tracy Burnett Talks to Financial Times About DOJ’s Alleged Bribery Case Against Indian Billionaire

Litigation Partner Tracy Burnett was quoted in a Financial Times article entitled “Fate of Adani Alleged Bribery Case Could Hang on Trump Presidency.” The article discussed the Justice Department’s high-profile prosecution of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who has been charged with paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials in return for favorable terms on solar power contracts expected to generate over $2 billion in profits.

The DOJ’s case, along with a parallel civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, seem to be supported, at least in part, by PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets that are said to outline options for paying the bribes and disguising them as a “development fee” or “commercial proposal.”

Tracy explained that the defense could seek to cast these documents in their favor. “Potentially that is a way you could characterize the evidence, that it was so neatly recorded and memorialized that it was transparent,” she said. “Or the argument could be that they were transparent and that counts against the government’s argument that they were knowingly” breaking the law.

Prosecutors will have to prove the requisite criminal intent, as there “is a heightened standard” under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, said Burnett. “The government needs to prove the defendants knew they were making corrupt payments, knew they were committing bad acts.”

Read the full article here.