The US Department of Justice on Saturday (4th July) strongly defended its decision to drop prosecution against Indian billionaire and chairman of the Adani Group, Gautam Adani. This comes after U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis ordered the prosecutors last month to justify their decision to drop charges against Adani. The prosecution was initiated during the previous Biden administration in the US and involved charges of securities and wire fraud linked to an alleged bribery scheme.
The DOJ filed its response in a 10-page document in which it reportedly outlined that the case is primarily foreign, hard to prove and inconsistent with the agency’s current priorities. The DOJ said that the prosecutors under the Biden administration started a baseless prosecution with the intention of maligning the Indian billionaire’s reputation and had little chance of success.
“The indictment was unsealed in the final days of the prior Administration, apparently as a ‘name and shame’ designed to levy accusations without any realistic prospect of a trial ever occurring,” the court filing stated. The DOJ pointed out that no US interests were harmed in the case.
“The alleged ‘payments’ in this case were made by Indian nationals, working for Indian companies, to the Indian government, with no U.S. interests implicated in any way,” the filing said.
The case against Adani involved allegations that in 2024, he agreed to bribe Indian government officials so a subsidiary of the Adani Group could get approval to develop a solar energy plant, and misleading US investors by reassuring them about his company’s anti-corruption practices. The Adani Group denied all the charges and did not appear in the US court to respond to them.
