A US federal judge has dismissed the bribery case against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, while sharply criticising a senior Justice Department official over the handling of the prosecution.
Adani and seven other executives were indicted in November 2024 in a New York federal court over allegations of orchestrating a bribery and fraud scheme linked to solar energy contracts in India.
Prosecutors had accused the defendants of paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar power supply contracts, while allegedly misleading US investors and financial institutions to raise billions of dollars.
Adani, one of India’s most prominent businessmen and chairman of the Adani Group, welcomed the court’s decision in a post on X, saying he received it with “humility and deep respect for the judicial process.”
He added that his faith in “the rule of law remained unwavering.”
In a 47-page ruling, Judge Nicholas Garaufis criticised Trent McCotter, principal associate deputy Attorney General, over the decision to seek dismissal of the indictment.
Garaufis said McCotter had “eschewed the professional opinions of innumerable officials from various federal offices and replaced them with his singular judgment.”
The judge also described as “highly unusual” McCotter’s decision to seek dismissal of the case after working largely with Adani’s defence lawyers and seemingly without input from the agencies that had investigated the allegations.
McCotter filed a motion on May 18 seeking dismissal of the indictment with prejudice, saying the Justice Department had reviewed the case and decided “not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants.”
Court documents showed that Adani’s lawyer, Robert Giuffra, who also serves as US President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, and his team at Sullivan & Cromwell provided McCotter with a 600-page document outlining the case.
The New York Times reported in May that Giuffra had argued during a meeting at the Justice Department headquarters in Washington that prosecutors lacked “basic evidence” to continue pursuing the bribery investigation against Adani.
Adani had also offered to invest $10 billion in the US economy and create 15,000 jobs as part of a proposed settlement, according to the newspaper. However, the latest court documents indicated that the offer did not form part of the Justice Department’s decision to drop the criminal charges.
The dismissal follows a separate resolution of civil proceedings against Adani and his nephew, Sagar Adani. Earlier this year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission settled its bribery-related case against the pair, with the two agreeing to pay a combined $18 million in fines.
The latest development brings Adani closer to the end of his legal challenges in the United States.
In June, Forbes reported that Adani’s wealth had risen by about $2 billion, making him Asia’s richest person and putting him ahead of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son.
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