US authorities are moving to resolve the fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, according to people familiar with the matter, and end a criminal case that’s hung over Asia’s richest person for more than a year.
The Justice Department may announce that they’re dropping the charges as soon as this week, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a confidential matter. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also moving to settle a parallel civil fraud case it brought against Adani and others in November 2024, some of the people said.
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Ending the cases would be a significant boon to the Adani Group, one of India’s most powerful companies, whose interests range from coal mining to renewable energy and airports. It also clears the decks for the conglomerate to return to international capital markets and resume its aggressive expansion strategy.
While the Justice Department could effectively move to drop the charges with the defendants out of the country, a resolution to the SEC would likely involve a monetary penalty, some of the people said.
A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Brooklyn declined to comment. Representatives for the SEC and the Adani Group didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
In November 2024, the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn alleged in a five-count indictment that Adani and other defendants helped drive a $250 million bribery scheme in India to lock in solar-power contracts. The Adani Group has consistently denied the charges. None of the defendants, including Adani and his nephew Sagar, have appeared in court so far over the charges and the case has been effectively stalled.
In its case, the Justice Department alleged that Adani and others promised bribes to Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts and concealed the plan as they sought to raise money from US investors.
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The SEC alleged in its parallel suit that Gautam Adani spearheaded an effort to pay or promise hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian officials to induce them to enter contracts that Adani Green needed to develop India’s largest solar power plant project.
While the Justice Department prosecution has been stalled with the Adanis not in the US, the SEC case had started to advance in court.
Earlier this year, Adani’s lawyers filed papers arguing that the SEC’s fraud case should be dismissed, saying that regulators lacked necessary jurisdiction over the two men and that the alleged misstatements underpinning the case weren’t actionable.
