US judge dismisses criminal case against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani

NEW YORK - A US judge on Aug 10 dismissed criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, after the Justice Department said it had decided to abandon the fraud and bribery case.

Brooklyn-based US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis’ decision to grant federal prosecutors’ rare bid to toss the case came after he inquired into their reasons for doing so, including by asking Adani whether anything was promised in exchange for the dropping of the case.

In November 2024, before the charges were unsealed, Adani had promised to invest US$10 billion (S$12.8 billion) in the US.

Adani was charged in 2024 with agreeing to bribe Indian government officials so a subsidiary of his Adani Group could win approval to develop a solar energy plant, then misleading US investors by providing reassuring information about his company’s anti-corruption practices.

Adani Group has consistently denied wrongdoing. Adani himself has not appeared in US court to respond to the charges.

On May 18, the Justice Department announced it would no longer pursue the case. That marked the latest instance in which federal prosecutors had sought to drop a high-profile white-collar criminal prosecution during Republican President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.

Legal experts say US judges have little discretion to compel prosecutors to continue with criminal cases they no longer wish to pursue, but the charges cannot be formally dismissed without a judge’s approval.

Garaufis asked the Justice Department to justify its decision to drop the charges, writing that its “bland and conclusory” announcement did not give him enough information.

In a July 4 court filing, Trent McCotter, a senior Justice Department official, said the case was primarily foreign, hard to prove and inconsistent with the agency’s current priorities.

In the filing, McCotter also denied as false what he called media stories suggesting he sought to dismiss the case in part because of a promise by Adani to invest money in the US.

In response, Garaufis asked Adani whether he was “aware of any agreement exchanging anything for the dismissal of the indictment.”

In a sworn declaration filed in court on July 15, Adani said he was not aware of any such agreement. He acknowledged having previously promised to invest US$10 billion in the US and said his lawyers told the Justice Department in meetings that the pledge “might be part of a resolution of these matters.”

Robert Giuffra, a lawyer for Adani, said in a July 15 court filing that the Justice Department had told him that it would not consider the Adani Group’s willingness to invest in the US as part of any resolution. REUTERS