Washington DC (Rajeev Sharma): The US District Court for the Eastern District of New York has permanently thrown out all criminal bribery and fraud charges against Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, and former executive Vneet Jaain. Presiding Judge Nicholas Garaufis granted the Department of Justice’s Rule 48(a) motion to dismiss the indictment with prejudice, officially closing the case and legally barring prosecutors from bringing the same charges forward in the future.
The federal case stemmed from an indictment unsealed in November 2024, in which American prosecutors claimed Adani Group executives participated in a scheme involving over 250 million dollars in bribes to Indian officials to secure lucrative solar power agreements while raising more than 3 billion dollars from US financial markets. The conglomerate consistently rejected the claims as baseless. In seeking the dismissal, the Justice Department pointed to significant evidentiary and jurisdictional hurdles, noting that statements regarding corporate compliance programs amounted to inactionable puffery rather than criminal fraud. Additionally, a parallel civil action by the Securities and Exchange Commission concluded after Gautam Adani agreed to pay a 6-million-dollar civil penalty without admitting or denying the allegations.
Separately, in Indian parliamentary developments, the Lok Sabha passed the Tribunals Reforms Bill to enhance the efficiency and operational framework of statutory tribunals across the country.
In a statement following the ruling, Gautam Adani welcomed the court’s decision, expressing gratitude for the judicial process and reaffirming the group’s focus on building core national infrastructure. Because the case was dismissed with prejudice prior to entering the trial stage, no evidence was formally presented or tested in court, leaving the underlying allegations without any judicial finding.
