US DOJ plans to drop criminal charges against Gautam Adani: reports
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The news: The US Justice Department is planning to drop criminal fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, with an announcement possible as soon as this week, unnamed sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg and the New York Times.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is also moving to settle a parallel civil fraud case, which would likely involve a monetary penalty, the people told the publications.
The context: The reversal follows an unusual meeting last month at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, where Adani’s new legal team, led by one of US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers Robert Giuffra Jr, presented prosecutors with roughly 100 slides arguing they lacked basic evidence and jurisdiction to bring the case, the Times reported citing the sources.
One slide offered a sweetener: if charges were dropped, Adani would invest USD10 billion in the American economy and create 15,000 jobs, one of the people told the paper.
Prosecutors later told Giuffra the investment offer would play no role in the case’s resolution, though it received a favourable response from at least one senior Justice Department official at the meeting, according to the report.
Adani was indicted in November 2024 over an alleged USD250 million bribery scheme to secure solar energy contracts in India. The Adani Group has consistently denied the charges.
Adani is Asia’s richest person, according to Bloomberg, and heads one of India’s most powerful conglomerates, with interests spanning coal mining, renewable energy and airports.
The sources: The New York Times, Bloomberg
