US DoJ drops charges against Adanis, others

Mumbai: The US Department of Justice moved to drop criminal charges against Gautam Adani as well as other Adani Group executives as it requested the court to dismiss the corruption indictment, ending a 19-month period that tested its ability to raise funds for expansion and led to the loss of contracts. Separately, the conglomerate agreed to settle civil charges with the US treasury department for violating sanctions with a $275 million payment without admitting wrongdoing.

The DoJ is said to have found no direct linkages to the US and that the evidence was insufficient to press charges, filing a motion to dismiss proceedings against all defendants. The court has to accept the request and the case can't be reopened based on the same charges.

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"The government respectfully submits this motion, pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a), requesting that the court dismiss the indictment in this case with prejudice," the DoJ said in its May 18 application to the US District Court in New York.

Material Consequences

“The Department of Justice has reviewed this case and has decided, in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants,” the DoJ said in its application.

The defendants in the proceedings were Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, Vneet Jaain, Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal.

This latest development opens up opportunities for the Adani Group’s multiple businesses to raise funds in the US and invest in new projects there, reportedly involving an amount in excess of $10 billion. These agreements come after Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani agreed to pay a total $18 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that they made false and misleading representations related to Adani Green Energy.

The action by the US authorities was mainly the basis for the proposed penalties, said Ashish K Singh, managing partner of law firm Capstone Legal.

“For the Adani Group, a formal closure of US proceedings restores its access to international debt and equity markets, access that carries material consequences for a conglomerate,” said Singh. “Critically, the legal architecture of both cases was always fragile: the alleged conduct occurred entirely in India, and jurisdiction was contested from the outset.”

Asia’s richest man Gautam Adani was embroiled in controversy when the DoJ in November 2024 indicted him, his nephew Sagar Adani and six others for allegedly colluding in a corruption scheme worth thousands of crores of rupees, defrauding US investors and obstructing investigations. The indictment was brought by a district court of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission in a combination of criminal and civil charges. The US prosecutors levelled five counts of charges against the Adani Group that had raised funds from US investors, and the New York Stock Exchange-listed Azure Power, a company backed by Canadian investor CDPQ. Azure executives were accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and obstruction of justice. The Adanis were charged with securities and wire fraud.

This had forced the Adanis to cancel a $600 million bond sale. Also, Kenya cancelled a contract given to the Adani Group to expand the country’s main airport and scrapped a $700 million energy deal.

Sanctions compliance

Zulfiquar Memon, managing partner of law firm MZM Legal, said the development underscores that sanctions compliance is a critical risk area for Indian businesses, particularly where transactions intersect with global financial systems.

“While large groups like Adani have demonstrated responsiveness through engagement and compliance enhancements, the broader takeaway is that companies must adopt a proactive, risk-based approach and seek specialist sanctions advice when dealing with high-risk jurisdictions or commodities,” said Memon. “This also creates an opportunity for the Indian government and chambers of commerce to issue regular, practical guidance on sanctions compliance to help businesses navigate these evolving complexities.”

The Adani Group, which runs some of the biggest airports and power plants in India, was negotiating with US regulators on a possible settlement without having to make any admission of guilt.

OFAC case

Separately, Adani Enterprises (AEL), the group holding company, settled a dispute with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over alleged import of goods from Iraq and Oman in violation of US sanctions, it was announced on Monday.

AEL agreed to pay $275 million, less than the maximum penalty of $384.2 million, without admitting any wrongdoing as the proportion of revenue from the alleged violations was insignificant and there were no prior such breaches.

“None of the parties involved in AEL’s LPG imports were sanctioned at the time of the LPG shipments, and none of the documentation provided to AEL contained any information explicitly pointing to Iranian origin of the LPG,’’ OFAC said in a statement on Monday.