Who are the defendants charged in US indictment of Gautam Adani?

Nov 21 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors have charged Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, founder of a conglomerate named after him, and seven others in an alleged bribery and fraud scheme related to a renewable energy project in India.

The authorities said Adani and the other defendants agreed to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian officials to obtain contracts. The Adani Group denied the charges as baseless and that it would seek "all possible legal recourse".

Here are key details of the people charged by the U.S. authorities:

** Gautam Adani, 62, is Asia's wealthiest person after countryman Mukesh Ambani with a net worth of $57.8 billion, according to Forbes. He set up the Adani Group in 1988, beginning with commodities trading.

He and his nephew Sagar are accused of orchestrating the scheme to secure a solar energy project in India and misleading the company's investors during a $750 million bond offering, which raised about $175 million from U.S. investors.

** Sagar Adani is credited with building the solar and wind portfolio of Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS), opens new tab and currently oversees its "organization building as well as all strategic and financial matters", according to its website. He is an executive director of Adani Green.

** Vneet Jaain has been the managing director of Adani Green Energy since 2020. Before that, he headed other Adani group firms such as Adani Power (ADAN.NS), opens new tab and Adani Infrastructure, according to his LinkedIn profile.

** Ranjit Gupta, between 2019 and 2022, was the chief executive officer of energy firm Azure Pow...
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