A US judge on Monday dismissed the bribery case against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, while also rebuking a senior Department of Justice official’s conduct related to the case as “concerning.”
Adani and seven others had been indicted in November 2024 in a New York federal court on criminal charges related to an alleged bribery and fraud scheme.
Adani Group is one of the biggest Indian conglomerates, with a significant presence in crucial sectors of the country’s economy—from ports to cement, from energy to media.
The prosecutors had alleged that the defendants paid more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar energy supply contracts, misled U.S. investors and banks to raise billions of dollars, and obstructed justice.
Adani in a post on X said he welcomed the U.S. court’s decision with “humility and deep respect for the judicial process” and added that his faith in “the rule of law remained unwavering.”
In the 47-page ruling, Judge Nicholas Garaufis slammed the conduct of Trent McCotter, the principal associate deputy Attorney General, saying he “eschewed the professional opinions of innumerable officials from various federal offices and replaced them with his singular judgment.”
Judge Garaufis also said it was “highly unusual” that McCotter’s decision to drop the indictment against the Indian tycoon was made “largely in collaboration with defense counsel,” and “seemingly without input” from agencies that investigated the bribery and fraud charges.
McCotter filed a request to dismiss the indictment against Adani with prejudice on May 18, stating that the Department of Justice had reviewed this case and decided “not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants.”
Robert Giuffra, Adani’s lawyer who also serves as the personal attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump, and his team from Sullivan & Cromwell had submitted a 600-page document to help familiarize McCotter with the case, according to court documents.
The New York Times in May reported that Giuffra, in a meeting at the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, had argued that the prosecutors lacked “basic evidence” to pursue the investigation into alleged bribery by Adani.
Adani had offered to invest $10 billion in the U.S. economy and create 15,000 jobs as part of the settlement, the NYT reported. However, that was found not to be a part of the DOJ’s decision-making, according to the latest court documents.
Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled its civil case over bribery charges against Adani and his nephew, Sagar Adani, directing the two to pay a total of $18 million in fines.
In June, after Adani’s legal woes in the U.S. almost ended, the Indian businessman’s wealth swelled by $2 billion, as per Forbes, making him Asia’s richest man, surpassing Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and SoftBank’s chief executive Masayoshi Son.
By CNBC
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