US drops fraud charges against Gautam Adani after he pledges $10 billion investment

The Donald Trump administration in the United States on Monday asked a court to dismiss fraud charges against Adani Group chairperson Gautam Adani, Reuters reported.

This came days after reports said Gautam Adani’s lawyers had told the US Department of Justice that he would invest $10 billion in the country’s economy and help create 15,000 jobs if the charges against him were dropped.

Earlier on Monday, the US Department of Treasury ‌also said that Adani Enterprises had agreed to pay $275 million to settle its potential civil liability for alleged violations of US sanctions on Iran.

Adani Enterprises is the flagship company of the Adani Group, led by Gautam Adani.

On Monday, the Department of Justice told Judge Nicholas Garaufis at the US District Court in the Eastern District of New York that it had decided, “in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants”, reported the AP.

For the charges to be dropped, Garaufis must approve the request.

The US authorities had in November 2024 indicted Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani for allegedly orchestrating a $265 million fraud scheme to bribe officials in India for solar energy contracts, and then misrepresenting the company’s anti-bribery practices to investors in the US.

The details of the alleged bribes were concealed to secure financing, the US...

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