THE US Department of Justice has permanently dropped all criminal charges against Indian tycoon Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar, bringing high-profile securities and wire fraud case in New York to a complete close after prosecutors concluded they could not sustain the allegations. With this, multiple US regulatory and legal investigations involving the group have all closed in the last couple of days. Last week, the US Securities and Exchange Commission settled civil allegations against the two men tied to disclosures made to investors in connection with solar energy projects in India. Court filings showed Gautam Adani agreed to pay USD 6 million and Sagar Adani USD 12 million, without admitting or denying wrongdoing. Thereafter, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) settled allegations of the Adani Group violating US sanctions on Iran in LPG imports. This followed the Indian conglomerate agreeing to pay USD 275 million while extending “extensive cooperation” with the investigation and making “proactive” disclosures.

 

Now, the US prosecutors at the Eastern District of New York dropped all charges against Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani. In a filing before the court, the US Department of Justice requested for dismissal of the indictment against the Adanis with prejudice. “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,” it said. Thereafter, the court ordered that the indictment against Adani and others “be dismissed with prejudice”. The closure marks a dramatic turn in a case that had threatened to disrupt the Adani Group’s global expansion plans. The SEC and DOJ cases, filed in late 2024, alleged the Adanis orchestrated a USD 265 million bribery scheme involving Indian officials to secure solar power contracts and concealed the arrangement from US investors and lenders while raising capital. The dismissal was “with prejudice”, preventing the case from being reopened. Such dismissals are uncommon in US criminal proceedings and typically reflect a determination that pursuing the case is no longer warranted after extensive review.