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Science Museum ‘monitoring’ US bribery case against Adani Green Energy
Indictment of Gautam Adani prompts fresh calls for museum to drop sponsorship deal
The Science Museum says it is “monitoring developments” in a US bribery case against Adani Green Energy, the sponsor of the museum’s recently opened green energy gallery.
Last week, a New York federal court issued an arrest warrant for chairman Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, who is an executive director at Adani Green Energy, and six others.
The court alleges that the defendants paid $265m in bribes to Indian Government officials to obtain solar energy supply contracts “through corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors”.
The 54-page indictment said that between 2020 and 2024, the defendants agreed to pay bribes for contracts that would generate more than $2bn (£1.58bn) in profits. The Adani Group, the multinational conglomerate that owns Adani Green Energy, has strongly rejected the charges, saying they are “baseless and denied” and that “all possible legal recourse will be sought”.
It comes 18 months after the conglomerate was accused of fraud by a US investment research firm. A 2023 report by Hindenburg Research accused the multinational of stock price manipulation, money laundering and accounting fraud, allegations that have been dismissed by the Adani Group as "malicious and baseless".
The latest development has prompted fresh calls from anti-fossil fuel campaigners for the Science Museum to drop Adani Green Energy as a sponsor and remove its name from the permanent exhibition space, which opened in March and is titled Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery.
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The partnership has proved controversial ever since it was announced in 2020 due to the Adani Group's significant interests in coal mining and coal-fired power. The Science Museum has previously emphasised that its relationship is with Adani Green Energy, not with the Adani Group, and says it chose to work with the company due to the "vital role" it is playing in efforts to decarbonise the global economy.
A spokesperson for Culture Unstained, an organisation that campaigns to end fossil fuel sponsorship of the Science Museum, said: “An arrest warrant for billionaire Gautam Adani on allegations of bribery and fraud should be the final straw for the Science Museum, when its ‘Adani Green Energy Gallery’ only serves to launder their sponsor’s toxic reputation.
“Since 2020, the museum has backed Adani and dismissed all evidence of its human rights violations, complicity in genocide, environmental damage and financial crime.
“The Science Museum’s own ethics policy prohibits donations where there are ‘concerns of fraud’ or money comes from donors who are ‘believed to have acted illegally’.
“Will it continue to defend a company whose chair and other senior executives have now been indicted by US prosecutors? Or will it finally admit the mistake it has made and drop this indefensible, polluting sponsor?”
A Science Museum spokesperson said: “We are aware of a case in the U.S. relating to Adani Green Energy and will be monitoring developments in line with our due diligence processes.”