In a big win for business tycoon Gautam Adani, the Justice Department of the United States (US) has dropped all criminal charges against him and closed the case permanently, reported news agency PTI on Monday, citing court filings.
“The Department of Justice has reviewed this case and has decided, in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants,” US prosecutors said in a filing.
The development comes after the Adani Group agreed to pay USD 275 million following the decision of the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to settle allegations against the firm for violating US sanctions on Iran amid its ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Last week, the civil allegations against Adani and his nephew Sagar were also settled by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The duo had reportedly agreed to pay USD 18 million, but without admitting or denying wrongdoing.
Case permanently closed
Based on the submissions by the Justice Department, the court ordered that the indictment against Adani and others “be dismissed with prejudice”. The dismissal “with prejudice” means that the case won’t be reopened.
Citing people familiar with matter, PTI reported that the case turned into Adani’s favour after it was found that there was no clear evidence to sustain the allegations against Adani and others.
Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain were charged only under securities and wire fraud statutes (counts 2, 3 and 4). They were not named in the more serious Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bribery charge or obstruction-related count (counts 1 and 5), which prosecutors brought against other defendants in the wider case.
The Adani Group has consistently rejected the allegations as meritless, defending its governance and compliance standards while pledging to contest the proceedings through legal channels.
That distinction, along with no US linkages, increasingly molded criticism of the government’s legal approach. Former SEC commissioner Laura Unger argued that authorities had effectively attempted to predicate a securities fraud case on allegations of bribery that had neither been adjudicated nor formally pursued in India.
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