US judge ends Adani bribery case as DOJ abandons $250M charges

A Brooklyn judge dismissed the bribery case against Gautam Adani on Monday, flagging "concerning" irregularities in how the Justice Department dropped it.

US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis dismissed the bribery case against Gautam Adani on Monday, ending a $250 million fraud indictment while calling the Justice Department's retreat "concerning."

"The irregularities in the decision to dismiss the indictment are concerning," Garaufis wrote in a 47-page ruling, saying senior Justice Department official Trent McCotter "eschewed the professional opinions of innumerable officials from various federal offices and replaced them with his singular judgment."

Adani, charged in November 2024 with agreeing to bribe Indian officials to win approval for a solar energy plant and then misleading US investors, had promised to invest $10 billion in the United States. In a July 15 sworn declaration, he said he knew of no agreement exchanging anything for the dismissal. His lawyer Robert Giuffra said the Justice Department told him it would not consider the Adani Group's willingness to invest as part of any resolution.

The dismissal removes a legal overhang that had weighed on Adani Group companies, whose holdings span ports, cement, energy and media across India's economy. Adani's net worth swelled by $2 billion in June after the Justice Department signaled it would drop the case, making him Asia's richest person, according to Forbes. Garaufis said he needs more information before deciding whether to dismiss charges against seven other defendants.

DOJ's Retreat Draws Judicial Scrutiny

McCotter, the principal associate deputy attorney general, filed a request on May 18 to dismiss the indictment with prejudice, saying the department had reviewed the case and decided "not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants." In a July 4 filing, he said the case was primarily foreign, hard to prove and inconsistent with the agency's current priorities, and denied as false media reports that Adani's investment pledge influenced the decision.

Garaufis, who had earlier refused to immediately dismiss the charges and demanded a detailed explanation, said it was "highly unusual" that McCotter's decision was made "largely in collaboration with defense counsel" and "seemingly without input" from the agencies that investigated the bribery and fraud allegations. Giuffra, who also serves as personal attorney to President Donald Trump, and his team from Sullivan & Cromwell submitted a 600-page document to help familiarize McCotter with the case, according to court documents.

The case is one of several high-profile white-collar prosecutions the Justice Department has dropped during Trump's second term. Legal experts say US judges have little discretion to compel prosecutors to continue with criminal cases they no longer wish to pursue, but charges cannot be formally dismissed without a judge's approval.

Civil Settlements and Market Fallout

Separately, Adani agreed to pay $6 million and his nephew Sagar Adani $12 million to settle civil claims brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission over the bribery allegations. Adani Enterprises also agreed to pay $275 million to the US Treasury to resolve claims tied to Iran sanctions.

Garaufis made clear his order should not be read as an endorsement of the Justice Department's decision, nor as a judgment on whether the original allegations had merit. He said he was not taking a position on the propriety of the defense's attempts to resolve the case through monetary or other offers, writing that it is "up to the public to decide" what implications such offers carry for the equal administration of justice and the rule of law.

Adani welcomed the ruling on X, saying he accepted the court's decision "with humility and deep respect for the judicial process" and that his "faith in truth, fairness and the rule of law remained unwavering."

The dismissal is likely to trigger a positive re-rating of Adani-linked stocks, including Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Adani Green Energy, as investors price out the legal risk that had shadowed the conglomerate since the indictment. Yet the judge's pointed criticism of the dismissal process could keep scrutiny on how the department handles politically sensitive prosecutions, with implications for corporate governance discourse and US-India relations.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.