US Judge Dismisses Criminal Charges Against Indian Billionaire Gautam Adani

 

A US judge dismissed criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, but said the Justice Department’s decision to abandon the fraud and bribery case was concerning.

 

Brooklyn-based US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis granted federal prosecutors’ rare request to dismiss the case after questioning their reasons for doing so, including whether Adani’s November 2024 pledge to invest $10 billion in the United States had influenced the decision.

 

The Justice Department’s move marked the latest instance in which federal prosecutors have sought to drop a high-profile white-collar criminal prosecution during Republican President Donald Trump’s second term in office.

 

In dismissing the charges against Adani, Garaufis said he was satisfied that the investment pledge had not influenced the Justice Department’s decision. He also acknowledged that judges have a limited role in reviewing federal prosecutors’ decisions to drop criminal charges.

 

However, he criticised Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter for working with Adani’s defence lawyers on the decision to dismiss the charges without input from the prosecutors or agents who had investigated the case.

 

“The irregularities in the decision to dismiss the indictment are concerning,” Garaufis wrote. “McCotter appears to have eschewed the professional opinions of innumerable officials from various federal offices and replaced them with his singular judgment.”

 

A Justice Department spokesperson referred to a July 4 filing in which McCotter said he had decided to drop the charges after meeting defence lawyers and other Justice Department lawyers and conducting his own research and analysis.

 

In a statement posted on X, Adani said: “I welcome the US Court’s decision with humility and deep respect for the judicial process.”

 

The judge said his dismissal of the case should not be interpreted as agreement with the Justice Department’s decision to drop the charges or as an opinion on the merits of the case. He asked the Justice Department to provide more information before he decides whether to dismiss charges against additional defendants.

 

Adani was charged in 2024 with agreeing to bribe Indian government officials so that a subsidiary of the Adani Group could win approval to develop a solar energy plant. He was also accused of misleading US investors by providing reassuring information about his company’s anti-corruption practices. Adani Group has consistently denied wrongdoing.

 

Adani himself has not appeared in a US court to respond to the charges.

 

In the July 4 court filing, McCotter said the case was primarily foreign, difficult to prove and inconsistent with the agency’s current priorities.

 

In a separate resolution of civil charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Adani agreed to pay $6 million, while his nephew, Sagar Adani, agreed to pay $12 million.

 

Adani Enterprises Limited has separately agreed to pay $275 million to the US Treasury Department to settle alleged violations of Iran sanctions.

 

In the filing, McCotter also denied what he described as media reports suggesting that he had sought to dismiss the case partly because of Adani’s pledge to invest in the United States.

 

In a sworn declaration filed in court on July 15, Adani acknowledged that he had previously pledged to invest $10 billion in the US and said his lawyers had told the Justice Department during meetings that the pledge “might be part of a resolution of these matters”.

 

Robert Giuffra, a lawyer for Adani, said in a July 15 court declaration that the defendants had told the Justice Department that the Adani Group was “amenable” to following through on the investment pledge as part of a resolution of the case.

 

Garaufis wrote that he took “no position on the ultimate propriety of Mr Giuffra’s repeat attempts to resolve this bribery case with monetary offers”.

 

“It is up to the public to decide what effect offers of this kind have on the equal administration of justice and the rule of law,” the judge wrote.