(Image source from: REUTERS)

The U.S. company said on Sunday it was assessing the impact of a Justice Department bribery charge against the founder of India's Adani Group over the agency's more than $550 million loan for the group-backed port development in Sri Lanka. Last November, the International Development Fund announced $553 million for a port terminal project in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital. The project is partly owned by the Adani group. Adani Group founder and billionaire Gautam Adani and seven others are accused of paying about $265 billion in bribes to Indian government officials to win contracts expected to be worth $2 billion, federal prosecutors in New York said Wednesday. The company has been profitable for over 20 years and is building India's largest solar project. "The DFC is aware of the recent allegations against Adani and is actively considering changes in light of the recent announcement by the Department of Justice," a spokeswoman for the development agency said.

“We are committed to ensuring that our programs and partners maintain the highest levels of integrity and compliance,” the official said. The company said that the amount from the loan obligations has not yet been paid. Bloomberg News first reported the news at DFC on Sunday. Adani Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside normal business hours on Sunday. The Adani Group has called the legal charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and a parallel civil suit "baseless and dismissed" and said it would pursue "all possible legal avenues".