US judge drops Adani bribery case, flags DOJ conduct

me-metals: A US judge has dismissed bribery and fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani while questioning the Justice Department’s “highly unusual” decision to abandon the case.

According to me-metals cited by mining.com, Adani and seven other defendants were indicted in 2024 for allegedly paying Indian officials more than $250 million in bribes to secure solar energy contracts and misleading US investors about the scheme. Adani has denied wrongdoing.

“The irregularities in the decision to dismiss the indictment are concerning,” Eastern District of New York Judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote in his ruling.

The decision ends a high-profile US prosecution of one of India’s richest businessmen while drawing scrutiny to how senior Justice Department officials reached their decision. Garaufis stressed that dismissing the indictment should not be interpreted as the court endorsing the government’s reasoning or expressing a view on the merits of the allegations.

Unusual process

Garaufis said he was satisfied that Adani’s pledge to invest $10 billion in the US did not influence the DOJ’s decision. Still, he singled out Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter’s role in dropping the charges.

McCotter made the decision largely in collaboration with Adani’s defence counsel and without input from federal prosecutors or agents who investigated the case, Garaufis said.

“McCotter appears to have eschewed the professional opinions of innumerable officials from various federal offices and replaced them with his singular judgment,” Garaufis wrote.

The judge also questioned McCotter’s rationale, saying his letter lacked “sufficient factual information” in several instances.

McCotter argued the prosecution was primarily a foreign matter, noting that “India” appeared 226 times in the indictment and warning that pursuing it could waste resources and cause “diplomatic strife.” Garaufis countered that US-related terms appeared 218 times, undermining the argument that word counts established the case as predominantly foreign.

Garaufis also raised concerns about the authenticity of documents McCotter submitted, adding to his criticism of the department’s internal process.

“I welcome the US court’s decision with humility and deep respect for the judicial process,” Adani posted on X.

I welcome the US court’s decision with humility and deep respect for the judicial process.Throughout this challenging period, our faith in truth, fairness and the rule of law remained unwavering.My deepest gratitude to those who never lost faith in us, in the system and in…

Investor comeback

The indictment landed as Adani Group, whose businesses span coal mining, power generation and ports, was recovering from a steep market selloff triggered by 2023 allegations of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

Adani celebrated president Donald Trump’s election and pledged before the charges were filed to invest $10 billion in the US and create 10,000 jobs.

The criminal dismissal follows other legal resolutions involving the group. Adani executives earlier this year agreed to pay a combined $18 million to settle a civil fraud case with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, while the group agreed to pay $275 million to resolve an Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions probe.

The resolutions have helped clear some of the legal uncertainty hanging over the conglomerate. Adani Group announced nearly $15 billion in investment commitments across its businesses last month and increased a planned share sale by 50% to $1.6 billion, signalling renewed investor appetite.

While the dismissal removes the US criminal case against him, Garaufis’s unusually pointed ruling leaves the Justice Department facing questions over how it ended one of its highest-profile international corruption prosecutions.

source: mining.com