Now Reading: US Judge Dismisses Bribery Charges Against Gautam Adani
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US Judge Dismisses Bribery Charges Against Gautam Adani
A US district judge on Monday dismissed criminal fraud and bribery charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani after the Justice Department moved to drop the prosecution. Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the Brooklyn…
The Story in Brief
A US district judge on Monday dismissed criminal fraud and bribery charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani after the Justice Department moved to drop the prosecution. Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the Brooklyn court granted the dismissal, saying he took no position on the propriety of settlement offers but leaving it to the public to judge their effect on equal justice. The charges, filed in 2024, alleged Adani agreed to bribe Indian officials for a solar project and then misled US investors. The Adani Group has consistently denied wrongdoing.
The Justice Department’s Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said in a July 4 court filing that the case was dropped because the alleged conduct was primarily foreign and difficult to prove, and no longer aligned with department priorities. Adani’s lawyer Robert Giuffra disclosed in a July 15 filing that the group was amenable to following through on Adani’s earlier $10 billion US investment pledge as part of a resolution. The judge noted he had questioned whether the pledge amounted to an improper quid pro quo but was satisfied it did not factor into the dismissal decision.
The Indian Opinion
Indian social media is buzzing with claims that the Adani Group used its $10 billion US investment pledge to buy a dismissal. This narrative ignores the detailed court record: Judge Garaufis explicitly said he took no position on the propriety of settlement offers, and the Justice Department’s own senior official, Trent McCotter, said the case was dropped because it was primarily foreign and hard to prove. Another lazy take paints this as a failure of US law. The real test is whether the Securities and Exchange Commission’s separate civil case, which Adani settled for $6 million, reveals any facts the criminal case left unexamined.
Sources (3): timesnownews.com, indiatoday.in, ndtv.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 3 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 3 sources.
