Adani bribery probe: US SEC led by two officers of Indian origin

New Delhi: Sanjay Wadhwa who runs the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) enforcement division, and is overseeing an investigation into charges of bribery by Adani family members and group officials, was promoted to his current role in October as per his LinkedIn profile.

Wadhwa joined the SEC in 2003 as a staff attorney, according to the US regulator's website. He was the senior associate director of the division of enforcement of the New York Regional Office of the SEC in 2021 when the agency probed several hedge funds and potential organised insider trading rackets.

The complaint by the SEC against Gautam Adani for allegedly bribing Indian government officials to fulfil tender conditions for lucrative power generation contracts won by Adani Green Energy names Tejal Shah, SEC's associate regional director for New York, as the complainant.


Both Wadhwa and Shah are of Indian origin.

Wadhwa completed a bachelor's degree in business administration at Florida Atlantic University. He did his JD (Juris Doctor) - the equivalent of a bachelor's degree in law in India - from South Texas College of Law, Houston, and an LLM in taxation from New York University School of Law as per the SEC's website.

Wadhwa's LinkedIn profile states he has "extensive experience in analysing and enforcing federal securities laws, gained from conducting or overseeing hundreds of investigations into hedge fund and other 'organised' insider trading; Ponzi schemes; complex market manipulation, including sophisticated pump-and-dump microcap fraud schemes, layering, and spoofing".

Meanwhile, Shah's LinkedIn profile shows she joined the SEC in 2014. She started her career with Cooley LLP, a Palo Alto-based law firm. She has a BS in policy analysis and management from New York University and a JD from New York University.