New Delhi: The US Justice Department is planning to drop criminal charges against Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani following an “unusual offer”—investment of $10 billion in the American economy by the group and creation of 15,000 jobs, according to a report in The New York Times.
A change in legal strategy was also part of efforts by Adani’s legal team in the US to resolve the graft case against him. Indicted in 2024 in the US, the billionaire stands accused of running an elaborate bribery scheme involving corruption and fraud at the “expense” of American investors.
NYT highlighted that Adani, who hired Robert J. Giuffra Jr, a personal lawyer of US President Donald Trump, is likely to incur financial penalties in separate cases under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Treasury Department. However, the charges framed by the US Justice Department are likely to be dropped in the next few days, it said.
Giuffra met with Justice Department officials last month, and in a presentation with over 100 slides, laid out the case for his client: that the US lacks jurisdiction to bring the case against Adani and lacks basic evidence, the paper reported. A slide in the presentation also offered that “if prosecutors dropped the charges, Mr Adani would be willing to invest $10 billion in the American economy and create 15,000 jobs”.
The prosecutors made it clear to Giuffra that the investment offer will play no role in the resolution of the criminal case. The offer, however, received a favourable response from at least one senior official of the Justice Department, NYT stated.
The matter highlights the growing perception in the US that the Justice Department is likely to go light on cases that involve individuals close to Trump. The US President has issued a number of pardons since returning to office in 2025, including to allies and former business partners.
While the criminal charges are likely to be dropped against Adani, the Indian billionaire is likely to incur close to $300 million in penalties imposed by the SEC and US Treasury Department. The SEC is likely to settle for an $18 million penalty, partly paid by Adani and a second party, said the NYT report.
The Treasury Department is looking to settle with Adani for $275 million. The department is currently investigating Adani’s conglomerate for allegedly shipping Iranian gas in violation of US sanctions.
The Indian billionaire, along with his nephew Sagar Adani and several others, was originally accused by the US Justice Department of orchestrating a roughly $265 million bribery scheme directed at Indian government officials to ensure solar power contracts would be given to the conglomerate.
The indictment, filed on 24 October in the district court in the Eastern District of New York and made public in November 2024, led to significant business and financial fallout for the conglomerate. Adani is worth over $100 billion.
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Case against Adani
As outlined in the US indictment, the scheme revolved around Adani Green Energy and Azure Power being awarded a tender to supply 12 gigawatts (GW) of solar power to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).
The SECI was tasked with finding buyers for the 12 GW of energy produced by the two companies. However, the US Justice Department alleged that due to the higher energy prices contemplated in the award, the SECI was unsuccessful in finding buyers for the power produced by the two private companies.
As the project was teetering, the US Justice Department alleged that Adani and several others created a scheme to offer Indian government officials bribes in exchange for domestic utilities to sign sales agreements with the SECI, thereby allowing the project to move forward.
At the same time, as the accused were allegedly involved in the bribery scheme in India, their companies were attempting to raise money from US investors, the indictment said.
Adani Green Energy put on hold its attempt to raise $600 million in dollar-denominated bonds in the immediate aftermath of the indictment.
Adani had first made the promise to invest $10 billion in the US roughly a week before the indictment was made public and after Trump had won the US election in November 2024. The announcement was made in a post on social media. However, given the indictment, Adani’s investment plans faced a number of challenges.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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