Gautam Adani Closes In on Dramatic Reversal of US Legal Fortunes

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(Bloomberg) — In the span of a few hours on Monday, Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest person, neared a resounding victory half way around the world that had been months in the making. 

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In Brooklyn, New York, the Justice Department sought to drop criminal charges against the Indian billionaire. Hours earlier, his flagship company announced it was settling an American sanctions-related probe. Just last week, the SEC announced it was settling a separate fraud case against Adani.

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The moves by American authorities to resolve legal actions against Adani and his companies are a major boon for the conglomerate and signal a potential dramatic US comeback for the tycoon. They’re also a stark reversal by US officials on two high-profile cases brought at the end of the Biden administration. 

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“This settlement removes a big regulatory overhang on the Adani group,” said Shriram Subramanian, founder and managing director of InGovern Research Services, a proxy advisory and corporate governance firm based in India. “More importantly, it paves the way for settlement of other regulatory scrutiny.”

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US prosecutors said after a review they had decided “not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants.” Adani Green Energy, said in a stock exchange filing that prosecutors had moved to dismiss the charges against Gautam Adani, as well as Sagar Adani and Vneet S. Jaain, who are both executives at the entity, and other defendants. 

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Prosecutors sought the dismissal “with prejudice,” meaning the charges can’t be refiled. The judge overseeing the case will review the motion. A spokesperson for US attorney’s office in Brooklyn declined to comment. 

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Indian markets were rocked in late 2024 when prosecutors alleged that Adani and other defendants helped drive a $250 million bribery scheme in India to lock in solar-power contracts. The Justice Department claimed 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 Adani Group consistently denied the allegations and none of the defendants, including Gautam Adani, had appeared in court over the charges and the case was effectively stalled. 

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Even as the case wasn’t progressing, it had political and financial repercussions for Adani. To fight the criminal and civil case, Adani built a political influence operation in the US that included white-shoe law firms and lobbyists.

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Investment Pledges 

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But Adani’s efforts to build up good will with the Trump administration appeared to start before any charges were unveiled. Shortly after Donald Trump won the 2024 election and before the Justice Department and SEC unveiled their cases, he congratulated him and pledged to invest $10 billion in US energy and infrastructure projects.

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More recently, the conglomerate had discussed plans to triple that pledge to $30 billion, focusing on sectors including data centers, infrastructure and green energy, Bloomberg News has reported. But the investments were unlikely to start until the companies had more clarity on their US legal issues, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations.