Gautam Adani is no ordinary Indian billionaire. Over the past 10 years, he has become in effect an extension of India’s government. His conglomerate, Adani Group, builds and buys ports, factories and power plants, often under state contract or license. It operates airports. It even owns a TV news channel.

Mr. Adani’s business empire has become central to India during the rise of Narendra Modi, first elected as prime minister in 2014.

As Mr. Modi brought India to the center of the world stage, he brought Mr. Adani in tow. Today, Mr. Adani’s flagship company is worth about 10 times what it was at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Wednesday, the U.S. government charged Mr. Adani, one of the world’s richest people, with multiple counts of fraud. Federal prosecutors accused him and his associates of offering $265 million to Indian officials and lying about the bribery scheme to Wall Street investors when raising money for a massive renewable energy project.

The Adani Group denied prosecutors’ claims, calling the allegations “baseless.” A spokesman said the company wanted to “assure our stakeholders, partners and employees that we are a law-abiding organization, fully compliant with all laws.”