US justice department defends decision to drop Adani charges, cites potential ‘diplomatic strife’

The United States’ Department of Justice on Saturday told a New York court that it wanted to drop fraud charges against Adani Group chairperson Gautam Adani because the case is primarily a foreign one, difficult to establish and inconsistent with the agency’s current priorities, Reuters reported.

The department also said that the US “pretending to be the world police” could cause diplomatic strife and waste resources that would be better utilised on domestic concerns, The Hindu reported.

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 justice department had claimed.

The Adani Group has denied the allegations. In a stock exchange filing in November 2024, the conglomerate said that Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani had been charged in the US for securities fraud, not bribery.

However, on May 18, the Donald Trump administration asked the court to dismiss the fraud charges against Gautam Adani.

Judge Nicholas Garaufis at the US District Court in the Eastern District of New York had on June 26 directed the justice department to justify its decision to drop...

Read more