A New York Times report has claimed that the US Justice Department is considering dropping criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani in a major bribery and securities investigation. The report comes as Adani’s legal team intensifies efforts to challenge the jurisdiction and legal basis of the case in American courts…reports Asian Lite News Desk
A New York Times report has claimed that the US Justice Department is considering dropping criminal charges against industrialist and Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani in a major development in the long running American investigation into alleged bribery and securities violations.
The report, published on Thursday local time, cited people familiar with the matter and suggested that prosecutors are now weighing whether to proceed with the case against Adani and other defendants.
The allegations were originally brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors, who accused Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and others of orchestrating an alleged bribery scheme worth more than 250 million US dollars between 2020 and 2024 to secure solar energy contracts in India.
According to the New York Times, the possible shift in the Justice Department’s approach comes after Adani hired a new legal team led by Robert J Giuffra Jr of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Giuffra is also known as one of US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers.
The newspaper reported that Giuffra met officials at the Justice Department headquarters in Washington last month. Citing people familiar with the meeting, the report said Adani’s lawyers argued that prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence and jurisdiction to pursue the case.
The report also claimed that Adani’s legal team indicated that the businessman could be prepared to invest 10 billion US dollars in the American economy, potentially creating 15,000 jobs, if the charges were dropped.
According to the New York Times, prosecutors told the legal team that any such investment would have no bearing on the criminal proceedings. However, the report stated that one Justice Department official responded positively to the proposal during discussions.
The claims have not been independently confirmed by the Justice Department, which has not publicly commented on the report.
Earlier this month, the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York accepted a plea filed by lawyers representing Gautam and Sagar Adani seeking a pre motion conference aimed at dismissing the case.
In a letter submitted to the court, the defendants’ lawyers stated that they intended to seek dismissal of the SEC complaint on several grounds, including lack of personal jurisdiction and what they described as the impermissibly extraterritorial nature of the allegations.
The lawyers argued that the SEC’s claims related to conduct involving Indian defendants, an Indian issuer and transactions conducted outside the United States.
According to the filing, Adani Green Energy Ltd conducted a 750 million US dollar bond offering in September 2021 under SEC Rule 144A and Regulation S, both of which provide exemptions for certain private resales and non US sales.
The defence said the bonds were sold outside the United States through agreements with non US underwriters, who later resold portions of the notes to qualified institutional buyers. The filing argued that Adani Green Energy Ltd was not involved in those later transactions.
The defendants also contended that the alleged misstatements identified by the SEC were too vague and general for investors to reasonably rely upon and therefore could not support fraud claims.
The filing further argued that the defendants neither operated in the United States nor engaged in activities that would give American courts jurisdiction over the matter.
Lawyers for the Adanis stated in the filing that “the claims involve Indian Defendants, an Indian issuer, securities not registered with the SEC and not traded on U.S. exchanges, and underlying conduct alleged to have occurred exclusively in India.”
The legal challenge is expected to play a central role in determining whether the case proceeds in the US courts in the coming months.
