US judge won’t immediately dismiss criminal charges against India’s Adani
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Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been accused of bribery and misleading US investors.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NEW YORK - A US judge ordered the Justice Department on June 26 to justify its decision to drop criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, declining to rule immediately on Adani’s lawyers’ request earlier in the week to formally dismiss the case.
Adani was charged in 2024 with agreeing to bribe Indian government officials so a subsidiary of his Adani Group could win approval to develop a solar plant, and then misleading US investors by providing reassuring information about his company’s anti-corruption practices.
Adani Group has consistently denied wrongdoing.
The Justice Department said in May it would no longer pursue the prosecution.
Adani’s lawyers asked Brooklyn-based US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis on June 24 to formally dismiss the case.
In a written ruling published to the court docket, Garaufis said federal prosecutors’ notice that they would abandon the case did not sufficiently explain their decision and gave them a July 13 deadline to submit more information.
“The Government’s terse, bland and conclusory statement affords the court neither a sufficient basis to reach any conclusion, nor the opportunity to conduct any analysis of the Government’s request for dismissal,” Garaufis wrote.
A spokesperson for the Brooklyn US Attorney’s office, which brought the charges, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Robert Giuffra, a lawyer for Adani, referred to the letter he wrote to Garaufis on June 24, arguing the case should be dismissed because it was beyond the reach of US law and because prosecutors would be unable to prove the alleged bribery in India. REUTERS
