CDPQ Rocked by Major Indian Bribery Scheme

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Jacob Serebrin of the Montreal Gazette reports former Caisse executives took part in Indian bribery scheme, U.S. officials allege:

Senior executives at Quebec’s provincial pension fund manager tried to win contracts by paying Indian officials hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and interfered with corruption investigations in the United States, American prosecutors allege.

Federal prosecutors in New York City have charged three former Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec executives with conspiracy to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to obstruct justice for their alleged roles in a bribery scheme and attempted coverup.

The most senior of those former officials, Cyril Cabanes, who was in charge of the Caisse’s infrastructure investments in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions at the time of the alleged offences, has also been charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“This indictment alleges schemes to pay over US$250 million in bribes to Indian government officials, to lie to investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and to obstruct justice,” deputy assistant attorney general Lisa H. Miller said in a statement. “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 U.S. investors.”

Also among those charged in connection with the alleged scheme are Saurabh Agarwal, the former managing director of the Caisse’s infrastructure investments in South Asia and former managing director of CDPQ India, and Deepak Malhotra, a former director of infrastructure investments in South Asia for the Caisse.

Cabanes and Malhotra sat on the board of Azure Power Global Ltd., an Indian green energy company at the centre of the alleged bribery scheme. The Caisse bought a controlling share of the company in 2020 and Cabanes served as its representative on Azure’s board.

“CDPQ is aware of charges filed in the U.S. against certain former employees. Those employees were all terminated in 2023 and CDPQ is co-operating with U.S. authorities. In light of the pending cases, we have no further comment at this time,” the Caisse said in an emailed statement.

U.S. prosecutors have also charged Gautam Adani, widely considered to be Asia’s second-richest man, and two other executives at a Indian green energy company that is part of a conglomerate he controls with several fraud-related charges in connection with the alleged scheme.


In 2019, his company, Adani Green Energy Ltd., and Azure won contracts from the Indian national government to build a solar power production facility, according to an SEC charging document filed in a New York City federal court.

But the companies struggled to secure deals with power distribution companies owned by Indian states to buy electricity at the price set by the national government.

In order to get those power purchase agreements, “Azure and Adani Green, acting through various senior executives and officials, undertook a massive bribery scheme,” according to the SEC, allegedly paying hundreds of millions in bribes to state officials to obtain the contracts, which could generate up to US$2 billion in profits for Azure alone.

According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday afternoon, the former CEO of Azure, Ranjit Gupta, who has also been charged by U.S. prosecutors, began plotting with Adani and other executives at Adani Green to pay bribes, eventually reaching an agreement to pay one-third of the total.

As Agarwal, Malhotra and Cabanes learned of the agreement, they became willing participants, prosecutors claim.

According to the indictment, Agarwal, Malhotra and Cabanes discussed multiple strategies to transfer the bribe money, with Agarwal making a PowerPoint presentation of possibilities. Eventually, the indictment says, they settled on a plan to transfer part of the power generation contract to Adani.

At the time, Cabanes “had the authority to direct the actions of certain CDPQ personnel who reported to him — including other members of Azure’s board — as well as the actions of Azure’s executive team,” according to the SEC.

When Azure’s board chair, identified as “co-conspirator #1,” notified the three Caisse executives of an SEC investigation, they created a sham internal investigation, revealing that they had been asked for bribes, but not that they had agreed to pay them, and destroyed evidence, according to the indictment.

“This strategy was designed to create the appearance that the co-conspirators were reporting misconduct, rather than perpetuating misconduct, which, in turn, aided the co-conspirators’ continued efforts to further the ongoing bribery scheme and to conceal the true nature of the bribery scheme from the board of directors and government investigations,” the indictment reads.

While the companies aren’t named in the criminal indictment, they are named in the SEC charging document, which names the same individuals as the indictment and recounts the same facts.

U.S. authorities say they have jurisdiction because Azure shares traded on a U.S. stock exchange until the company was delisted in 2023 and because some of Cabanes’s actions took place in the U.S.

Adani Green sought to raise money from U.S. investors and misled them, in violation of U.S. law, American authorities say.

The Adani Group said in a statement that the charges are “baseless and denied” and that it plans to use all legal means to fight them. Azure’s current management said in a statement that it is co-operating with the investigation.

None of the accused have been taken into custody and all of those charged are Indian citizens who were living in India at the time of the alleged offences, except for Cabanes, an Australian and French citizen, who was living in Singapore.

James Bradshaw of the Globe and Mail also reports former Caisse executives face U.S. charges in alleged bribery scheme involving Indian billionaire:

Prosecutors in the United States have charged three former executives of Quebec-based pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec with obstructing an investigation into an alleged bribery scheme involving Indian billionaire Gautam Adani.

The charges filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York allege that Mr. Adani and executives from energy subsidiaries of his business conglomerate conspired in a scheme to pay more than US$250-million in bribes to Indian government officials. The payments were allegedly to help secure favourable contracts tied to a major solar energy project.

Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Mr. Adani and his nephew, Sagar Adani, as well as Cyril Cabanes, a former managing director of infrastructure for the Asia Pacific region at the Caisse, “for conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme.”

New York prosecutors also charged Mr. Cabanes as well as former managing director of CDPQ India Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, a former director of infrastructure for South Asia at the Caisse, with conspiracy to obstruct justice. CDPQ India is a subsidiary of the pension manager that operates in that country.

The charges allege that the three executives, who were then employed by the Caisse, tried to thwart an investigation by deleting e-mails and presentations that summarized the bribes, and misled investors from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department and the SEC.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

“CDPQ is aware of charges filed in the U.S. against certain former employees. Those employees were all terminated in 2023 and CDPQ is co-operating with U.S. authorities. In light of the pending cases, we have no further comment at this time.”

Court filings allege that Mr. Agarwal and Mr. Malhotra, who were based in India, first learned about the bribery scheme late in 2021, and shared that information with Mr. Cabanes. When communicating about the scheme, the filing alleges, they often referred to Mr. Adani and another defendant by code names such as “Numero uno” and “the big man.”

After authorities launched investigations, the three executives then employed by the Caisse used a strategy “designed to create the appearance that the co-conspirators were reporting misconduct rather than perpetrating misconduct,” prosecutors allege. They also allege the three men “destroyed or otherwise concealed evidence.”

The prosecutors allege that the scheme was hidden from U.S. banks and investors, from whom the defendants raised billions of dollars.

The charges appear to relate to Azure Power Global Ltd., a New-Delhi-based company that saw its share price plunge in 2022 when it announced the resignation of its CEO and a whistle-blower complaint. That wiped out hundreds of millions of dollars of value from investment portfolios held by the Caisse and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, which together owned a majority stake in Azure.

Mr. Cabanes, who was based in Singapore, was formerly a member of Azure’s board of directors.

The charges filed in New York identify an “Indian Energy Company” that specialized in renewable energy, headquartered in India, as well as another renewable energy company identified as the “U.S. Issuer.” The SEC complaint appears to identify those companies as Adani Green Energy Ltd. and Azure Power.

It says the bribery scheme paid Indian government officials to secure promises to buy energy at above-market rates that would benefit the companies.

Mr. Adani is one of the world’s richest people with an estimated net worth of nearly US$70-billion, according to Forbes, and has close ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“As alleged, the defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars,” said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement. Mr. Adani and two other defendants “lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from U.S. and international investors.”

Barbara Shecter and Jordan Gowling of the National Post also report former Caisse employees face U.S. charges in sweeping Adani bribery indictment:

Three former employees of the Caisse de dépôt et Placement du Québec are facing charges as part of a sweeping indictment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York that accuses Gautam Adani, chair of India’s Adani Group and one of the world’s richest men, of a massive bribery scheme involving Indian officials and billions of dollars in solar energy contracts.

According to the indictment, which was unsealed on Wednesday, U.S. federal prosecutors allege Adani and associates offered to pay US$250 million to Indian government officials between 2020 and 2024, in exchange for lucrative solar energy projects for two companies, while concealing their bribery scheme when they sought funding for the same projects from U.S. investors.

Others named in the indictment include three former employees from the Caisse, Quebec’s largest pension fund — Cyril Cabanes, 50, Saurabh Agarwal, 48, and Deepak Malhotra, 45 — who are accused of obstructing a grand jury, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Securities Commission, in investigations of the alleged bribery scheme.

According to the indictment, the former employees of the Canadian institutional investor, along with a fourth man, allegedly agreed “to delete electronic materials related to the bribery scheme, including emails, electronic messages and bribery analyses.”

They are also alleged to have caused the board of directors of a U.S. company to initiate an internal investigation into the bribery scheme “and then withheld material information from that investigation.”

The former Caisse employees are charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

They are also alleged to have falsely denied their participation in the bribery scheme to representatives of the FBI, DOJ and SEC at meetings in Brooklyn, New York, leading to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice.

None of the allegations have been tested in court.

In a emailed statement, the Caisse said the three employees were terminated in 2023 and that it was cooperating with U.S. authorities.

Malhotra was a director of infrastructure for South Asia, according to an article on the Infrastructure Investor website, which reported all three had left the Caisse in 2023.

Agarwal joined the Caisse in 2017 and became managing director for CDPQ India in 2022, where he represented “the organization in the financial and business community, as well as with key stakeholders including the government and regulators,” according to his Linkedin profile.

Cabanes spent seven years as the managing director of infrastructure for the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions based out of Singapore, according to his Linkedin profile.  He oversaw a team of 25 investment professionals based in Singapore, Sydney and Delhi managing assets that included renewables, ports, electricity networks and power generation. Cabanes currently serves as chief executive at MorGen Energy, a hydrogen energy company based out of Zurich, Switzerland.

From 2017 to 2023, Cabanes was a non-executive director of Azure Power Global Ltd., one of two companies that were part of the scheme alleged by U.S. authorities. According the U.S. Attorney’s indictment, Malhotra also held a non-executive director role at Azure.

The indictment alleges that Cabanes first became aware of the bribery scheme in December of 2021, after he was told by Agarwal and Malhotra. By the spring of 2022, Cabanes, Agarwal and Malhotra made plans on how Azure Power would pay for the portion of bribe payments promised by a company the indictment refers to as “Indian Energy Company” on behalf of Azure Power.

In 2020, the Caisse became the majority shareholder in Azure Power Global Ltd., owning 24,259,272 shares representing a 50.9 per cent stake in the company. In 2021, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System also purchased a 19.4 per cent stake in the company, valued at US $219 million.

The India-based renewable energy company traded on the New York Stock Exchange until it was delisted late last year. The other company named by authorities is Adani Green Energy Ltd., which the SEC says raised $175 million from U.S. investors while the alleged bribery scheme was in progress.

The indictment does not name the Caisse directly, but refers to a “Canadian Investor” that is an institutional investor headquartered in Canada that managed funds for Canadian public retirement and insurance plans.

By June of 2022, Agarwal and Cabanes agreed to “delete electronic messages they had exchanged about what they would report to the Canadian Investor and the Canadian Investor Subsidiary about the scheme,” the indictment alleges.

According to a news release issued Wednesday by the U.S. SEC, Cabanes, who is no longer a member of Azure Power’s board of directors, is alleged to have “facilitated the authorization of bribes in furtherance of the scheme while in the United States and abroad.”

According to the indictment, the three men were questioned by the FBI, the SEC and the U.S. Department of Justice between March and July of 2023, where they denied any participation in the bribery scheme.

In statement, the Caisse said it “is aware of charges filed in the U.S. against certain former employees. Those employees were all terminated in 2023 and CDPQ is cooperating with U.S. authorities. In light of the pending cases, we have no further comment at this time.”

Last July, the New York Stock Exchange took steps to delist the shares Azure Power Global Ltd., which was unable to file required regulatory documents. The company attempted to have the decision to delist reversed, but it proceeded on Nov. 13, 2023, according to a news release.

Anne-Louise Stranne Petersen of Infrastructure Investor also reports CDPQ’s former Asia-Pacific infra head targeted in US bribery charges:

Aman Malik of VCCircle also reports former CDPQ India head, Gautam Adani, and others charged in US bribery case:

Three former executives of Canadian pension fund CDPQ, including a former India head, have been indicted along with Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and four others by US prosecutors for their alleged role in what may have been a case of multi-billion-dollar bribery and fraud, the US Department of Justice said.

Cyril Cabanes, a former managing director of infrastructure for Asia-Pacific at CDPQ; Saurabh Agarwal, the pension fund’s former India MD; and Deepak Malhotra, its former director of infrastructure for South Asia; have been named alongside Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and Vineet Jaain for allegedly agreeing to pay $250 million (over Rs 2,100 crore) in bribes to officials in India. The alleged bribe was paid between 2020 and 2024 to win solar energy supply contracts that could yield profits of $2 billion over a 20-year period, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

The indictment also names Ranjit Gupta, formerly the CEO of CDPQ-controlled Azure Power, and Rupesh Agarwal, the former Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer at the green energy firm.

Cabanes had left CDPQ in January this year and is now the chief executive officer at MorGen Energy, according to his LinkedIn profile. Agarwal quit CDPQ in India a little over a year after being elevated to the top job as VCCircle had noted. He had been named managing director for India in March 2022 after the departure of Anita George in January last 2022. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is currently self-employed. Malhotra, too, reportedly left around the same time as Cabanes. It is unclear where he is working right now.

CDPQ is the majority owner of India-based green energy firm Azure Power that was earlier listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) but has since been delisted from the bourse.    

Gupta had quit Azure in April 2021. He was succeeded by Harsh Shah, who quit rather abruptly barely a month after taking over the top job at the company. Shah had cited "unforeseen circumstances and matters beyond his control" for his abrupt departure. Shah went back to joining the KKR-backed InvIT IndiGrid as its CEO. Rupesh Agarwal had been appointed acting CEO in August 2022 after Shah left.  

Cabanes, who was on the board of directors at Azure Power, has been charged with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for his role in the alleged bribery scheme. Cabanes allegedly facilitated the authorization of bribes in furtherance of the scheme while in the US and abroad, as per a complaint by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. 

“According to the SEC’s allegations, the bribery scheme was orchestrated to enable the two renewable energy companies to capitalise on a multi-billion-dollar solar energy project that the companies had been awarded by the Indian government. During the alleged scheme, Adani Green raised more than $175 million from US investors and Azure Power’s stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange,” the SEC said separately.

Apart from this, the Adani Group’s green energy company is also alleged to have raised bonds and loans worth more than $3 billion allegedly based on false and misleading statements, reports said.  

While Gautam Adani heads the Adani Group, his nephew is an executive director on Adani Green’s board.

The SEC complaint says that the Adanis paid or promised to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to government officials in India to get their commitment on purchasing energy at above market rates, which would directly benefit Adani Green and Azure Power.  

The allegations say that the Adanis were engaged in the bribery scheme during a 2021 offering by Adani Green that raised $750 million, of which $175 million was raised from US investors. “The Adani Green offering materials included statements about its anti-corruption and anti-bribery efforts that were materially false or misleading in light of Gautam and Sagar Adani’s conduct,” the SEC said in its statement.    

The SEC’s division of enforcement, which is headed by an Indian origin official Sanjay Wadhwa, has alleged that the Adanis induced investors in the US to purchase bonds of Adani Green via an offering that not only allegedly misrepresented that Adani Green had an anti-bribery compliance programme but also that the senior management would not indulge in bribery. Cabanes is alleged to have participated in the bribery scheme while serving as director at Azure, which was then publicly-listed on the NYSE.  

The SEC’s complaint against Gautam and Sagar Adani charges them with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. The complaint seeks permanent injunctions, civil penalties, and officer and director bars. The SEC’s complaint against Cabanes charges him with violating the FCPA and seeks a permanent injunction, a civil penalty, and an officer and director bar. Both complaints were filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.     

Most Adani Group stocks were down over 10% on Indian stock exchanges in Thursday trade, following these allegations.

Layan Odeh and Mathieu Dion of Bloomberg also report Adani bribery charges add to Quebec pension’s India Nightmare:

Follow Bloomberg India on WhatsApp for exclusive content and analysis on what billionaires, businesses and markets are doing. Sign up here.

US bribery charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani have ensnared one of Canada’s largest public pension managers, deepening its embarrassment over a renewable-energy investment that went sour. 

Three former employees of Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec were charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act on Wednesday. The list of the accused includes Cyril Cabanes, a former managing director in CDPQ’s Asia-Pacific infrastructure unit, as well as Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, who also worked for the fund manager.

US prosecutors allege that defendants including Adani, one of the world’s richest people, promised to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts, and that they concealed the plan as they sought to raise money from US investors. 

The criminal indictment and a related case from the Securities and Exchange Commission allege that executives at Adani Green Energy Ltd. were among those who paid bribes to state officials. Some of the bribes were ultimately paid, at least indirectly, by Azure Power Global Ltd., a builder and operator of solar-power projects that was a partner of Adani Green, according to the SEC.

The regulator’s complaint says that Cabanes “schemed” with others to make those payments possible while he was serving as an employee of CDPQ and a board member of Azure Power. 

CDPQ is Azure’s majority shareholder, and Cabanes and Malhotra represented the money manager on the solar company’s board until October 2023, when they resigned. 

Azure said it’s cooperating with US authorities on the investigation. The shares were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and now trade over the counter, having lost almost all of their value. 

“CDPQ is aware of charges filed in the US against certain former employees,” a spokesperson for the Quebec pension manager said by email. “Those employees were all terminated in 2023, and CDPQ is cooperating with US authorities.” The spokesperson declined further comment. 

Reluctant Governments

Prosecutors claim that executives attached to Adani Green paid or promised the bribes to overcome the reluctance of Indian state governments to sign power purchase agreements — contracts that were essential to making the numbers work on new solar manufacturing projects. 

Over a period of many months in 2022 and 2023, Cabanes “routinely strategized” with Azure’s chairman to figure out how to pay Azure’s one-third share of the bribes, the SEC complaint alleges. 

Eventually, they landed on a plan that saw Azure give up a lucrative share of a large power project in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh — to the benefit of Adani Green, which gained a bigger stake. 

“Cabanes devised and directed a coordinated cover-up of the efforts to compensate Adani Green and the Adanis for the bribery payments or promises,” colluding with others at CDPQ and Azure to conceal their misconduct, the SEC documents claim. Cabanes did not reply to multiple requests for comment from Bloomberg. 

CDPQ, which oversees C$452 billion ($324 billion) on behalf of pension plans and other accounts in Canada’s second-largest province, has made a number of investments in Azure since 2016, boosting its stake to more than 50%. It invested a total of about $480 million, according to calculations made by Bloomberg last year. 

“When there’s irregularities from a governance standpoint, the action plan is immediate and ruthless from the Caisse,” Charles Emond, CDPQ’s chief executive officer, said in an interview with Bloomberg News in June 2023.

Although the fund has significant losses on Azure, “the reality is that there is still very good assets underneath. There is a plant, a company that distributes electricity to millions of Indians,” Emond said at the time. “Share price is one thing, value is another one.” 

Another Canadian pension manager, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, is Azure’s No. 2 holder with about 21%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Its infrastructure arm bought a stake in Azure for $219 million in a deal announced in July 2021.

Julian Gratiaen, who oversees legal aspects of Omers’ infrastructure assets in Asia, has been on Azure’s board since July. He replaced Delphine Voeltzel, another Omers executive who was on the board from May 2022 until July 2024, according to LinkedIn. 

“The allegations in this indictment are concerning,” an Omers spokesperson said. “The events alleged in the formal charges began before we became a minority shareholder in Azure Power in 2021. Omers is not implicated in any of the alleged conduct and will continue to cooperate fully with the investigation.”

Lastly, Martin Patriquin of The Logic reports that Quebec pension fund rocked by sensational bribery allegations (paid subscription).

You can read the SEC complaint against former CDPQ executive Cyril Sebastien Dominique Cabanes here.

It was deposited Wednesday by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and if you read that document carefully, it's extremely disturbing and sobering to say the least.

Here is just a small sample of the incredible details:

"SAG", "Mr Big", and so on. 

My jaw literally dropped reading this document which is why you all need to read it here.

Remember when I told you nothing shocks me any longer? 

I take that all back. This is beyond shocking. You simply cannot make this stuff up. 

It should be made into a Hollywood blockbuster movie, that's how bad it is.

The cojones on Cyril Cabanes and his co-conspirators at CDPQ to actually go through this scheme defies anything I've ever seen before.

Not only did they mislead US investors, they reportedly covered up their actions and obstructed justice from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department and the SEC

Cyril Cabanes, 50, Saurabh Agarwal, 48, and Deepak Malhotra, 45 — who are accused of obstructing a grand jury, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Securities Commission, in investigations of the alleged bribery scheme.

According to the indictment, the former employees of the Canadian institutional investor, along with a fourth man, allegedly agreed “to delete electronic materials related to the bribery scheme, including emails, electronic messages and bribery analyses.”

Cabanes, who was on the board of directors at Azure Power, has been charged with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for his role in the alleged bribery scheme. Cabanes allegedly facilitated the authorization of bribes in furtherance of the scheme while in the US and abroad, as per a complaint by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

If these allegations are proven true in a court of law, this literally may be the greatest bribery case ever involving a global pension fund.

And unfortunately for CDPQ, it was their employees in India and Singapore that are front and center of this scandal. 

This is a nightmare for Charles Emond and his executive team.

No wonder he and Emmanuel Jaclot who heads up Infrastructure didn't respond to my email early Thursday morning, they knew it was going to hit the fan and that's why CDPQ put out a short statement to all reporters: 

“CDPQ is aware of charges filed in the U.S. against certain former employees. Those employees were all terminated in 2023 and CDPQ is co-operating with U.S. authorities. In light of the pending cases, we have no further comment at this time.”

That has CDPQ's lawyers written all over it and I'm sure top law firms in Montreal and New York are all advising CDPQ on this matter. 

When the SEC, FBI and the US Department of Justice are involved, you don't screw around, you assist their investigation and stay very quiet.

How can this possibly happen? These are professional pension fund managers getting paid big bucks, they know better than to get involved in such a mega bribery scheme.

Well, two quick remarks on that.

Greed knows no bounds and if they got away with it, they would have all made millions.

Second, and more pressing for CDPQ, it exposes serious operational risk at the organization and its subsidiaries.

Over 20 years ago, I used to invest in top hedge funds for CDPQ and had to conduct thorough investment and operational risk due diligence and fraud was a major concern.

For this to occur so easily among three employees, well it just tells me they saw a deficiency in the way things are monitored and took advantage of it.

Yes, they got caught and left the organization but how this occurred in the first place is something that needs to be properly explained to the public (that's the job of senior executives and the board to be frank).

They've known about this for a while now and now that it's public knowledge, they're in full damage control.

Also, who hired Cyril Cabanes? I'm assuming it was Emmanuel Jaclot who has a stellar reputation at CDPQ and across the industry but he too needs to explain how this occurred in his team and why there weren't processes in place to mitigate fraud.

[Note: It might have been Macky Tall who hired him back in 2016].

And don't kid yourself, if this can happen at CDPQ, it can happen anywhere, so everyone should be on guard and the heads of Finance should sit down with external operational risk experts to go over their processes and make sure they're air tight to protect against fraud.

I've never met Cabanes but someone I know has and shared this:

I met Cyril a few times when I was at CDPQ. He struck me as inexperienced to be playing in the swamp in India. Clearly, when you combine ambition, inexperience, and probably not enough supervision, it doesn’t end well. 

He was in his early 40s when he was appointed and actually had zero experience in developing countries.  Spent most of his career, until then, on an investment banking desk. Clearly smart but didn’t know what rabbit holes to stay clear of.
Anyway, he is in deep trouble and CDPQ has cut the cord so he is in a boat in the middle of the ocean with no paddle and life preserver. Good luck to him

Good luck to him? More like the hell with him if all these allegations prove true!

I'm personally sick and tired of these young, slick, investment banking types with high positions at these Maple Eight pension funds who are clearly there for one reason and one reason only.

They're polished, know how to schmooze with bankers and billionaires but they're not worthy of holding such high positions and this is just one example, there are others.

Also, what exactly happened to Anita George, CDPQ's former managing director in India?

I liked her a lot and these sort of things would have never occurred under her watch.

Anyways, I'm rambling and getting worked up because these bribery allegations that are rocking CDPQ couldn't have come at a worse time following the purging at AIMCo.

I can just see government officials all over Canada thinking the same thing: shut down all these foreign offices, fire these high priced employees and repatriate the money to invest it all in Canada.

Of course that would be a stupid strategy but just imagine what Jean-Guy Pépin and Annie Turcotte in Quebec reading the Journal de Montréal or La Presse are thinking after reading these allegations.

Politicians will have a field day too with this hot potato and Charles Emond will likely be summoned up to Quebec City to answer tough questions.

Not exactly fun for him and the rest of the Maple Eight CEOs can't be happy either.

I remember what CPP Investments' CEO John Graham told me when I met him in Montreal a few years ago: "When one of our peers suffers a black eye, we all do."

I'll leave it at that, this hasn't been a good week for the Maple Eight and another contact of mine told me straight out that CDPQ "should stop posting how many awards and accolades they are receiving on LinkedIn and focus on making high risk-adjusted returns."

A bit harsh but I get his point, enough with the LinkedIn brouhaha! (that goes for everyone)

Alright, let me wrap it up as it's been a long week and I definitely don't get paid millions for all the work that goes into this blog.

I'll remind all of you, my focus is on markets 24/7, this blog is a huge service to all of you and not a charity. I thank those of you who take the time to contribute using PayPal under my picture on the top left-hand side.

Below, Global Mirror episode, anchor Shreya Upadhyaya discusses US charges against Gautam Adani and 10 others. Billionaire Gautam Adani faces bribery allegations in New York, causing massive financial turmoil with ₹2.45 lakh crore wiped off Adani Group's market value in hours. While Adani denies the charges as baseless, the chaos raises questions about the group's strategy to counter the legal and financial fallout in the U.S..

The allegations by US prosecutors raised a political firestorm back home and led to tanking of Adani Group shares. The others who have been accused are Adani Group’s executive Vineet Jain, Azure employees Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, along with ex-employees of a Canadian institutional investor (CDPQ) Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, and Deepak Malhotra.

Also, in this episode of Urban Debate, anchor Shreya Dhoundial discusses about US charges against Gautam Adani and 10 others. Billionaire Gautam Adani and his executives have been accused of paying bribes to obtain solar energy contracts. The allegations by US prosecutors raised a political firestorm back home and led to tanking of Adani Group shares. The others who have been accused are Adani Group’s executive Vineet Jain, Azure employees Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, along with ex-employees of a Canadian institutional investor (CDPQ) Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, and Deepak Malhotra.

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