The administration of United States President Donald Trump has moved to dismiss criminal fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani in a case where he is accused of bribing Indian officials for as much as $265m to secure contracts and lying to US investors to land a solar energy project in India, allegations that his company has long denied.
The case was dropped by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) after Adani pledged a $10bn investment in the US.
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“The Department of Justice has reviewed this case and has decided, in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants,” the DOJ said in a short letter sent to Judge Nicholas Garaufis at the US District Court in the Eastern District of New York.
A judge must still sign off on the DOJ’s request.
The case, originally brought by the DOJ under the administration of former US President Joe Biden, accused Adani of bribing officials to secure solar energy contracts at the expense of US investors.
“The defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from US and international investors,” Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said at the time.
Adani Green Energy was accused of bribing officials in order to win a contract to build the largest solar power plant in India. Adani allegedly misled investors by providing information about the company’s anti-corruption practices. Prosecutors said he and his alleged co-conspirators raised more than $3bn in the process.
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The government dropping the case comes amid recent changes in Adani’s legal team. The billionaire, the 17th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $108bn according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, appointed to his legal team Robert J Giuffra Jr, who also happens to be one of US President Donald Trump’s personal attorneys, according to reporting from The New York Times last week.
Giuffra Jr said that Adani would pledge an investment of $10bn in the US, which, according to the newspaper, would bring in 15,000 jobs. He also stressed, according to the paper, that the billionaire denied the allegations.
Adani said that he wanted to invest in the US but “could not do so while the cases proceeded”, according to the Reuters news agency, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the case.
On Monday, the US Department of the Treasury announced a $275m settlement with Adani over alleged sanctions violations involving Iran. The company was accused of buying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from a Dubai-based trader purporting to supply Omani and Iraqi gas that had actually originated from Iran.
Adani Enterprises has also ceased imports of LPG into India and created a head of compliance role to ensure it follows US Treasury Department guidance.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also settled a civil suit with Adani last week over the alleged bribes, though the agreement still needs legal approval.
“If approved by the court, [it] would order Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani to pay civil monetary penalties of $6,000,000 and $12,000,000, respectively,” the SEC said in a statement released on Thursday.
Adani did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
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