Led by a 20% crash in three Adani Group stocks this morning, the combined market capitalization of all 11 Adani stocks fell by around Rs 2.25 lakh crore to Rs 12 lakh crore, marking the conglomerate's worst trading day since the Hindenburg bombshell in early 2023.

Billionaire Gautam Adani's net worth also plummeted by $10.5 billion to $59.3 billion, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List

Adani, who along with his nephew and six others have been indicted by US prosecutors in New York for allegedly offering $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials for getting solar contracts, saw his flagship entity Adani Enterprises shares fall 20% to Rs 2,256.20.

Adani Energy Solutions shares also hit the 20% lower circuit limit at Rs 97.70. Similarly, the conglomerate's cash cow Adani Ports also fell 20%.

Other Adani stocks - Adani Green, Adani Total Gas, Adani Power, Ambuja Cements, ACC, NDTV, and Adani Wilmar - were all trading at least 10% lower.

The impact was also felt in the bond market as dollar bond prices for Adani companies fell sharply. Prices for Adani Port and Special Economic Zone debt maturing in August 2027 fell more than five cents on the dollar, according to LSEG data

Adani Electricity Mumbai debt maturing in February 2030 fell nearly eight cents and dollar bonds issued by Adani Transmission also notched falls larger than five cents to trade just above 80 cents.

Moody's Ratings on Thursday said the news is credit negative for Adani Group companies.

"The indictment of Adani Group's chairman and other senior officials on bribery charges is credit negative for the group’s companies. Our main focus when assessing Adani Group is on the ability of the group’s companies to access capital to meet their liquidity requirements and on its governance practices," Moody's said.

In the meantime, shares of Adani bull GQG, which became one of the biggest backers of Adani Group after the Hindenburg crisis, fell 26% in Australia.

"We are monitoring the charges brought today by the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against Gautam Adani and certain other Adani Group executives and companies. Our team is reviewing the emerging details and determining what, if any, actions for our portfolios are appropriate," GQG said in a statement.

As per the case 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 $265 million in bribes. They expected these contracts to generate $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 bribes from lenders and investors to secure over $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.

"This indictment alleges schemes to pay over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials, to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa H Miller.

"These offences were allegedly committed by senior executives and directors to obtain and finance massive state energy supply contracts through corruption and fraud at the expense of US investors," she added.

Adani Group statement

In the meantime, a spokesperson of Adani Group denied all the allegations and termed them as "baseless".

"As stated by the US Department of Justice itself, "the charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty." All possible legal recourse will be sought," Adani Group said.

"The Adani Group has always upheld and is steadfastly committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency and regulatory compliance across all jurisdictions of its operations. We assure our stakeholders, partners and employees that we are a law-abiding organisation, fully compliant with all laws," it said.