DOJ defends dropping criminal charges against Gautam Adani

In a closely watched case that placed billionaire businessman Gautam Adani at the centre of serious fraud and bribery allegations, the US Justice Department has defended its decision to drop the criminal case against him, saying a reported pledge to invest billions of dollars in the US did not influence the move.

In a letter, Trent McCotter, the principal associate attorney general, said the government had decided to forgo the charges before the investment offer was ever raised, and argued that the case was “so indefensible”, NBC News reported.

Adani and others were indicted in 2024 in Brooklyn, New York, where federal prosecutors accused them of a massive fraud and bribery scheme. However, the department has since asked for the indictment to be permanently thrown out, and US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis has not yet signed off on that request.

McCotter wrote that the decision was not tied to any investment discussions. “I would have sought dismissal of the securities charges regardless of any mentions of investments, regardless of whether the civil case (or any other matter) was settled or otherwise resolved,” he wrote.

According to prosecutors, Adani paid Indian government officials $250 million to win a bid to develop the country’s largest solar power plant. The contracts were projected to generate $2 billion in profits over 20 years. Prosecutors also alleged that Adani misled US investors by concealing the payments to Indian officials.

Adani, who has close ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was never arrested in connection with the charges or brought to the US to face trial. His lawyer, Robert J. Giuffra Jr., declined to comment on Monday. Giuffra had previously said the government decided to drop the case after months of “detailed and extensive communications and meetings” with the Justice Department, including written submissions, expert testimony and presentations, according to a filing.

In his letter to Garaufis, McCotter argued that the case was a foreign matter and that the alleged misconduct centred on Indians trying to bribe other Indians. He said the word “India” appears in the filing well over 200 times. “The United States pretending to be the world police can cause diplomatic strife and also wastes resources better spent on domestic concerns,” McCotter wrote. “India can better manage its internal systems than can prosecutors in Brooklyn and Washington.” He also said US investors did not lose a “single penny” on the transactions that prosecutors relied on to bring the charges.

In May, the government asked for the indictment to be permanently thrown out, saying it had “reviewed this case and has decided, in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants”. The request was signed by McCotter and Joseph Nocella, the US attorney for Brooklyn, but did not include the signatures of line prosecutors assigned to the case. A month later, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut wrote to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about the “reportedly ‘transactional nature’” of the decision to drop the case. The senators said reports of an investment pledge raised “serious questions about corruption under President Trump and about the role that Mr. Adani’s politically salient offer played in the DOJ’s decision”. The Justice Department has maintained that the investment offer played no role in its decision, while the court has yet to approve its request to dismiss the case.