Three former execs of Canadian pension fund CDPQ charged alongside Adani in US fraud, bribery case

Canadian pension fund CDPQ hit the headlines in India for the wrong reasons on November 21 when the US SEC charged billionaire Gautam Adani and others with an over $250 million bribery and fraud case. Along with Adani, three former execs of CDPQ were indicted.

The former CDPQ employees are :

• Cyril Cabanes, a former managing director of infrastructure for Asia-Pacific at CDPQ
• Saurabh Agarwal, the pension fund’s former India MD
• Deepak Malhotra, its former director of infrastructure for South Asia

In the US indictment, a case was also made out against Ranjit Gupta, who is the former CEO of CDPQ-controlled Azure Power.


Cabanes was with CDPQ till January this year. He then left his position there, and is now the chief executive officer at MorGen Energy, his LinkedIn profile shows.

According to a VCCircle report, Agarwal resigned from CDPQ about a year after being given the top India post at the company. He had been named India MD in March 2022 and had replaced Anita George. Agarwal is currently self-employed, the report said citing LinkedIn.

The report added that Malhotra also reportedly resigned from the company around the same time as Cabanes. According to it, his current professional details are not known.

CDPQ holds controlling stake in Azure Power, an India-based green energy firm. Azure was earlier listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), but is currently not listed there.