A Quebec pension fund manager says it is cooperating with US authorities after three former employees were charged in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, in an alleged scheme to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to the Indian government.

The US Attorney’s Office says that between 2020 and 2024, the trio was involved in a conspiracy to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian officials and deceive investors and banks to secure multi-billion-dollar contracts with a solar energy company.

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Cyril Cabanis, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra have been charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the alleged bribery scheme that also allegedly involved Indian billionaire Gautam Adani.

Adani is one of the richest men in the world and has close ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The attorney’s office alleges that the three former employees of the pension fund also conspired to obstruct a grand jury and the FBI by deleting electronic materials, withholding information, and falsely denying their participation in the alleged bribery conspiracy.

The manager of the pension fund, Caisse de dépôt et Place du Québec, says he is aware of the charges against “some former employees,” who he says were dismissed in 2023, adding that he will not comment further.

The Adani Group, Adani’s subsidiary, denied the allegations as “baseless” and said it would seek recourse to the law. None of the accused have been arrested in the case.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 22, 2024.