US SEC yet to serve summons on Gautam Adani, nephew in India

Mumbai: The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not yet served summons on Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani in India. The US regulator had filed a civil and criminal complaint against the billionaires and the Adani entity nine months ago.

In its third status report dated August 11, 2025, to Magistrate Judge James R. Cho of the Eastern District Court of New York, the SEC said the defendants are "located in India and the SEC's efforts to serve them are ongoing, including a request for assistance from Indian authorities to effect service under the Hague Service Convention for Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters."

ET has reviewed the SEC's deposition before the magistrate.


The SEC filed its complaint on November 20, 2024, alleging that the defendants "violated federal securities laws by making false and misleading representations about Adani Green Energy Ltd. in connection with a September 2021 debt offering."

Because the defendants are in India, the filing noted, "service is governed by Rule 4(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure," which "allows the SEC to serve Defendants by any internationally agreed means reasonably calculated to give notice, such as the Hague Service Convention."

The regulator said it has provided prior updates on April 23 and June 27, 2025, "concerning its ongoing service efforts."

According to the filing, "The SEC has requested assistance from India's Ministry of Law & Justice ('India MoLJ') under Article 5(a) of the Hague Service Convention in serving the Summons and Complaint on Defendants in India."

It added that the agency "has also sent Notices of Lawsuit and Requests for Waiver of Service of Summons, including copies of the Complaint, directly to Defendants and their counsel, and the SEC has communicated with the India MoLJ."

However, the SEC understands "that those authorities have not yet effected service."

Earlier, the ET reported that the Adani Group had engaged US law firms Kirkland & Ellis and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to handle the matter.

The SEC told the court: "The SEC intends to continue communicating with the India MoLJ and pursue service of the Defendants via the Hague Service Convention, and will keep the Court apprised of its efforts."

The civil complaint is part of a broader set of legal actions involving Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Adani Green Energy Ltd., being pursued in US courts.

The SEC is investigating CDPQ executives Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, and Deepak Malhotra for allegedly destroying evidence and withholding key information in a bribery case. In a filing reviewed by ET, the agency said it has been "making efforts to serve defendant in accordance with Rule 4(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in Singapore" and that local counsel "has been actively making attempts at locating Cabanes." The SEC added that it learned Cabanes "is likely to have departed Singapore" and is continuing efforts to find him in other jurisdictions.