Adani Denies US Investment Plan Behind DOJ Move Drop Charges

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(Bloomberg) — Indian billionaire Gautam Adani told a federal judge on Wednesday that his pledge to invest in the US didn’t play a role in American prosecutors moving to drop criminal charges against him.

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US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, who is presiding over Adani’s case, had pressed him for information after the Justice Department said in May that it had decided “not to devote further resources to these criminal charges.” Adani and others were accused by US prosecutors in late 2024 of a scheme to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to lock in solar energy contracts — allegations he has consistently denied.

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Federal prosecutors generally have wide discretion to drop criminal cases, and judges have little power to stop them. But Garaufis said in June that the Trump administration had “failed” to explain why dismissal was justified. He pressed the Justice Department and Adani for details. 

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Just after Americans elected Donald Trump as president in late 2024, Adani publicly said he planned to invest $10 billion in the US. Among more than 100 slides that Adani’s legal team used to argue against the criminal case this year was one that referenced the $10 billion pledge, Bloomberg has reported.

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Adani wrote in a July 14 sworn statement filed with a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on Wednesday that when he made the post in November 2024 he wasn’t aware of the indictment or a parallel case by the Securities and Exchange Commission — neither of which had yet been made public.

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“To my knowledge, the Adani Group’s interest in investing in the United States had no role in the DOJ’s decision to seek the dismissal of the Indictment,” Adani wrote in the statement. He also said he was “not aware of any agreement involving any person or entity exchanging anything for the dismissal of the Indictment.”

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DOJ Review

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Earlier this month, in a separate filing in response to the judge’s query, a senior Justice Department official said that the move to drop the case was entirely based on a review of the merits of the matter and that a pledge by Adani to invest in the US did not play a role in the decision.

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Adani’s lawyer Robert Giuffra, Jr. also told the court in a declaration that was submitted to the court on Wednesday that the Justice Department’s decision wasn’t driven by Adani’s investment pledge. 

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Giuffra said that Adani’s legal team had raised with the Justice Department that, as part of a resolution on the merits, Adani’s company would be amenable to following through on the November 2024 investment pledge. 

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“We referenced the Adani Group’s willingness to invest to underscore that a collateral consequence of the pendency of these charges was the adverse impact on the Group’s ability to invest in the United States and on the U.S.-India trade relationship,” Giuffra wrote in his declaration, which said it was executed on July 14. Giuffra said it was routine for defense lawyers to advocate based on “collateral consequences” of a case.