Adani Buys Way Out of FBI Findings of Corruption in
India
The decision came after a meeting in which
a lawyer for the billionaire, Gautam Adani, made an unusual offer, according to
people familiar with the matter.
·
Prosecutors had accused Mr. Adani and associates of
orchestrating a $265 million bribery scheme linked to solar contracts in
India and misleading U.S. investors.
·
Mr. Adani recently hired a new legal team led by
Robert J. Giuffra Jr., who also represents Donald Trump in other legal matters.
·
During a meeting at the U.S. Justice Department,
Adani’s lawyers argued that prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence and
jurisdiction to pursue the case.
·
The legal team also indicated that if charges were
dropped, the Adani Group could invest $10 billion in the United States
and create around 15,000 jobs.
·
The Justice Department reportedly stated that the
investment proposal would not influence its decision, though some officials
viewed it favorably.
·
A parallel civil case by the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission has already been settled, with penalties totaling $18 million.
·
The U.S. Department of the Treasury is also
investigating Adani companies over alleged Iranian gas shipments that may have
violated U.S. sanctions, with a possible penalty of around $275 million.
·
The case reflects the Trump administration’s
broader retreat from aggressive enforcement of foreign bribery laws,
particularly the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
·
The administration has argued that strict overseas
bribery enforcement can hurt American competitiveness and strategic interests.
·
The indictment had major geopolitical implications
because the Adani Group plays a significant role in India’s infrastructure
sector, including ports, airports, highways, and energy projects.
·
India’s business community closely watched the case
due to concerns over its impact on investor confidence and U.S.-India
commercial relations.
[ABS News Service/15.05.2026]
When
the Justice Department indicted India’s richest man in the final weeks of the Biden
administration, prosecutors described an “elaborate” bribery scheme involving “corruption
and fraud at the expense of U.S. investors.”
Now,
according to several people with knowledge of the case, the Justice Department is
planning to drop the charges altogether.
The
reversal came after the Indian billionaire, Gautam Adani, hired a new legal team
led by Robert J. Giuffra Jr., one of President Trump’s personal lawyers and the
co-chairman of the prominent firm Sullivan & Cromwell.
Mr.
Giuffra’s efforts on Mr. Adani’s behalf culminated in a previously unreported meeting
last month at the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, according to
people familiar with the meeting. Mr. Giuffra ticked through about 100 slides outlining
why prosecutors lacked basic evidence, as well as the jurisdiction even to bring
the case, one of the people said.
Another
slide also made an unusual offer: If prosecutors dropped the charges, Mr. Adani
would be willing to invest $10 billion in the American economy and create 15,000
jobs, echoing a pledge he had made in the wake of Mr. Trump’s election.
As
part of the same meeting, Mr. Giuffra sought to resolve a parallel civil case against
Mr. Adani brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as a separate
investigation by the Treasury Department. The S.E.C. announced its settlement with
Mr. Adani late Thursday; the Treasury Department could unveil its own deal in coming
days.
Although
prosecutors later told Mr. Giuffra that the $10 billion investment would play no
role in the resolution of the criminal case, his offer received a favorable response from at least one senior Justice Department
official at the meeting, according to the people familiar with the meeting.
The
proposal — which Mr. Trump could have held up as a political and economic win —
underscores the highly transactional approach to justice in Mr. Trump’s second term.
Over
the past year, he has awarded pardons to his donors and even a business partner,
while prosecutors in his Justice Department have dropped charges and investigations
against other political allies. Those results, a striking break from prosecutorial
norms, have fueled the perception that freedom is up for
sale in Mr. Trump’s Washington, emboldening defendants to offer economic settlement
terms that were once unthinkable.
The
people with knowledge of Mr. Adani’s case said that prosecutors were not pulling
back as a political favor to Mr. Adani, who has a close
relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. Instead, one of them said,
a dismissal would reflect the Trump administration’s broader retreat from foreign
bribery cases and its reluctance to act as a global corporate police force.
Even
if the criminal charges against Mr. Adani are dismissed, he is still expected to
incur financial penalties, the people with knowledge of the case said.
The
S.E.C. settlement announced on Thursday included a penalty of $18 million. Mr. Adani
will pay $6 million, while a co-defendant will pay the balance.
And
the Treasury Department, which was separately investigating Mr. Adani’s companies
for shipping Iranian gas in violation of U.S. sanctions, is preparing to extract
a penalty of its own, potentially about $275 million, the people with knowledge
of the case added.
Although
the deal could still fall apart, the Justice Department could move to dismiss the
charges in the coming days, according to people familiar with the deal.
A
spokesman for Mr. Adani did not respond to a request for comment.
The
indictment, which federal prosecutors in Brooklyn secured in late 2024, carried
geopolitical implications. Mr. Adani is an infrastructure titan in India, and his
company, the Adani Group, has been a driving force behind building the country’s
biggest ports and highways, while also operating airports and owning a television
news channel.
He
has a net worth of $104 billion, making him the 17th-wealthiest person in the world,
according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
Prosecutors
charged Mr. Adani with securities fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy, accusing
him, his nephew and six other associates of orchestrating a $265 million scheme
to bribe Indian government officials to secure lucrative solar contracts in India.
The defendants, prosecutors said, also lied about the bribery scheme when they were
trying to raise money from American investors.
The
defendants have not entered pleas and are not in custody because none of them were
living in the United States when the indictment was announced.
In
November 2024, a week before the charges were unsealed, Mr. Adani posted on X that
his conglomerate would invest $10 billion in American energy and infrastructure
projects and create up to 15,000 jobs as part of deepening U.S.-India relations.
By that time, Bloomberg News had already reported that U.S. prosecutors were investigating
Mr. Adani.
He
also wrote on X that Mr. Trump, who had just been re-elected, was an “embodiment
of unbreakable tenacity, unshakable grit, relentless determination and the courage
to stay true to his beliefs.”
The
unsealing of the charges complicated his investment plans. And since the charges
threatened his access to American markets and his ability to travel freely outside
India, Mr. Adani’s lawyers began pushing law enforcement officials to dismiss the
cases against him. Last summer, Mr. Adani brought on a team of lawyers from Sullivan
& Cromwell, including Mr. Giuffra.
By
then, Mr. Giuffra was also representing Mr. Trump in the appeal of his criminal
conviction in Manhattan for falsifying records to cover up hush money paid to a
porn star.
After
Mr. Giuffra took over Mr. Adani’s case, he moved to get the S.E.C. case dismissed.
In a court filing, he argued that the case had barely any connection to the United
States, saying that the allegations centered on a solar
energy project in India with no American bidders and no American consumers.
Mr.
Adani’s lawyers also submitted affidavits from experts — including a former S.E.C.
commissioner — who argued that the conduct occurred in India, and that the investors
did not in fact lose money.
When
Mr. Giuffra raised the $10 billion investment offer in the meeting last month, it
was a small portion of his overall presentation, but it caught the attention of
senior Justice Department officials.
One
of the officials, Trent McCotter, appeared to draw a parallel to the case against
former Mayor Eric Adams of New York, in which the Justice Department abandoned corruption
charges against Mr. Adams in exchange for his cooperation with immigration enforcement,
according to people familiar with the meeting.
Mr.
McCotter, who was named principal associate deputy attorney general in April, said
he thought the considerations behind the dismissal of the Adams case were appropriate,
some of the people said.
Before
he joined the Justice Department in January, Mr. McCotter had publicly indicated
his support for dropping the charges against Mr. Adams. Last year, he submitted
a court filing arguing in favor of the decision.
The
Adams case resulted in a public confrontation between the Justice Department in
Washington and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, leading prosecutors on the
case to resign in protest of a deal that they saw as a quid pro quo between the
Trump administration and the mayor of New York.
And
in the Adani case, some government officials have pushed back for months on efforts
by Mr. Adani’s lawyers to get the case dismissed, according to people familiar with
the matter.
Five
associates of Mr. Adani were charged under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which
prohibits companies that operate in the United States from paying bribes overseas
to win business.
Last
year, the Justice Department dismissed a case against former executives of Cognizant
Technology Solutions Corp. that accused them of authorizing a bribery scheme in
India — shortly after Mr. Trump issued an executive order pausing enforcement of
the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The
executive order criticized the law for criminalizing “routine business practices
in other nations,” arguing that it hurt American economic competitiveness and national
security.