PTI
New York/New Delhi
A US federal judge has permanently dismissed criminal charges against Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar, removing a major legal overhang that had dogged the ports-to-energy conglomerate for
nearly two years.
US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the Eastern District of New York approved the Justice Department’s request to dismiss the charges.
Adani welcomed the country’s decision, saying he accepted it with “humility” and “deep respect” for the judicial process.
In a 47-page order issued on August 10, Garaufis granted the Justice Department’s Rule 48(a) motion to dismiss Counts
Two, Three and Four of the indictment against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, and former Adani
Green Energy CEO
Vneet Jaain.
The counts covered securities-fraud conspiracy, wire-fraud conspiracy and securities fraud. The dismissals were with prejudice, meaning the charges cannot be refiled.
Garaufis reserved judgment on Count One, alleging Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, and Count Five, alleging conspiracy to obstruct justice, both involving five non-appearing, India-based co-defendants: Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra, and Rupesh Agarwal.
The Justice Department has until August 31 to satisfy the court’s requirements, while counsel for the non-appearing defendants must confirm their clients’ consent by the same date.
The judge stressed that the dismissal was an exercise of prosecutorial discretion, not a verdict on the allegations. “No one should mistake” the ruling for the court’s agreement with the government’s decision or an opinion on the merits, Garaufis wrote. No trial was held, witnesses were examined or evidence tested in court.
The indictment, returned by a grand jury on October 24, 2024 and unsealed on November 20, 2024, alleged three interlocking schemes between 2020 and 2024. It accused Adani executives of paying about USD 265 million in bribes to Indian officials to secure solar-power contracts projected to generate more than USD 2 billion in after-tax profits over two decades; misleading US and international investors to raise nearly USD 4 billion in financing; and destroying evidence and lying to the FBI, SEC and a federal grand jury.
The Adani Group has consistently denied the allegations, saying it acted in accordance with the applicable law.
In May, the Justice Department asked for the charges to be dismissed after an extensive review, citing jurisdictional and evidentiary challenges, the predominantly Indian nature of the alleged conduct, scrutiny of the matter by Indian authorities, the absence of identified investor losses and that pursuing it no longer aligned with the department’s priorities.
It also argued that the case, unsealed during the closing weeks of the Biden administration, had little realistic prospect of reaching trial and appeared to have been a politically motivated “name and shame” exercise.
The request came after Adani hired a new legal team led by Robert J Giuffra Jr, co-chair of the US law firm Sullivan & Cromwell and a personal lawyer to President Donald Trump. Giuffra had reportedly met Justice Department officials earlier this year to raise concerns about the case.
Judge Garaufis initially resisted the government’s request. In June, he said its explanation for abandoning the prosecution was insufficient and ordered officials to provide more information.
The judge also questioned whether Adani’s pledge to invest USD 10 billion in the US and create 15,000 jobs had played a role in the decision to drop the charges.
Adani announced the investment in November 2024 in a post congratulating Trump on his election victory. Reports later said Adani’s lawyers had raised the pledge during discussions with the Justice Department over the case.
Adani’s lawyers said the investment was never offered in exchange for dropping the charges. Garaufis ultimately concluded that the pledge had not influenced the Justice Department’s decision.
Commenting on the ruling, Adani said “truth has prevailed”, adding that he respected the judicial process and was grateful to those who supported the Group during proceedings.
“Throughout this challenging period, our faith in truth, fairness and the rule of law remained unwavering,” Adani said in a post on X.
He reaffirmed the Group’s commitment to “nation-building”, long-term value creation and serving a purpose “larger than ourselves”.
Adani’s legal team, retained in August 2025, submitted about 600 pages of legal arguments, expert reports and presentations to the DOJ over 10 weeks between February 3 and April 17, 2026.
The material included an 118-page letter, a 95-page slide deck, a separate 151-page presentation to the SEC and about 200 pages of expert opinions from four specialists: a Harvard Law School professor, a former acting SEC chair, a former chief justice of India and a former chairman of India’s Central Electricity Authority.
Giuffra described the effort as involving “many thousands of hours”.
The Adani Group says the litigation never interrupted its operations, financing or project execution. It invested more than Rs 2.08 lakh crore in the second half of FY25 and FY26, including record annual capital expenditure of Rs 1,52,967 crore in FY26 — the highest by any Indian corporate — while its asset base grew from Rs 4.12 lakh crore in FY23 to Rs 7.85 lakh crore in FY26 and its market capitalisation recovered above pre-indictment levels.
