US authorities plan to drop fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, which were first unveiled in 2024, according to a Bloomberg report citing persons familiar with the matter.
In a significant breakthrough for the Adani Group, the US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could resolve charges related to Gautam Adani as soon as this week, roughly 18 months after they accused the Indian magnate of involvement in a bribery and fraud scheme.
Adani’s hiring of Robert Giuffra, one of US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers, and an offer to invest $10 billion in the US economy played a key role in the US government’s decision, a report in the New York Times added.
In 2024, the US Attorney’s office in New York’s Brooklyn released a criminal indictment which alleged that Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and other executives were involved in a scheme to bribe Indian government officials in an effort to secure a solar energy contract worth billions of dollars. In addition, the indictment alleged that the Adanis subsequently misled investors about the bribery scheme as they attempted to court investments from America and international investors.
“As alleged in the indictment, between approximately 2020 and 2024, the defendants agreed to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts with the Indian government, which were projected to generate more than $2 billion in profits after tax over an approximately 20-year period (the Bribery Scheme),” reads the indictment, which alleges that Adani personally met with an Indian government official to discuss the bribery scheme.
The legal charges against the Adani group represented a serious challenge to the firm’s ability to conduct business in the United States. For its part, the Adani Group dismissed the charges as “baseless”.
“Despite all the noise, the facts are that no one from the Adani Group has been charged with violating the FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) or conspiring to obstruct justice,” said Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani at the firm’s Annual General Meeting in June last year.
Even as the legal process surrounding the bribery and fraud charges played out in the US system, the Adani group built a substantial influence operation in Washington in an effort to address the charges with the Trump administration.
Adani Green Energy Limited was the third largest Indian lobbying spender in 2025, with a $50,000 lobbying spend on two firms – Kirkland and Ellis LLP and Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart and Sullivan LLP. Both firms focused on “green energy issues and related criminal and civil matters”. Adani North America and affiliates are also registered as a lobbying firm on behalf of the Adani group.
According to the New York Times, Adani lawyer Robert Giuffra met with Justice Department officials last month in Washington and argued that US prosecutors did not have the evidence or jurisdiction to bring a case against the Adanis.
In addition, Giuffra outlined the group’s willingness to invest $10 billion in the American economy and create 15,000 jobs if the charges were dropped. This offer piqued the interest of senior Justice Department officials, the NYT reported. (Hindustan Times)