A U.S. judge on Monday
dismissed criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam
Adani, but said the Justice Department’s decision to abandon the
fraud and bribery case was concerning.
Brooklyn-based U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis’ decision
to grant federal prosecutors’ rare bid to toss the case came
after he inquired into their reasons for doing so, including
whether Adani’s November 2024 promise to invest $10 billion in
the United States was a factor in the decision to drop the
charges.
The Justice Department’s decision marked the latest instance
in which federal prosecutors had sought to drop a high-profile
white-collar criminal prosecution during Republican President
Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.
In dismissing the charges against Adani, Garaufis said he
was satisfied that the investment pledge did not factor into the
Justice Department’s decision, and acknowledged that judges’
role in reviewing federal prosecutors’ decisions to drop charges
was limited.
But he criticized Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General
Trent McCotter for collaborating with Adani’s defense lawyers in
deciding to dismiss the charges without input from the
prosecutors or agents who investigated the case.
“The irregularities in the decision to dismiss the indictment
are concerning,” Garaufis wrote. “McCotter appears to have
eschewed the professional opinions of innumerable officials from
various federal offices and replaced them with his singular
judgment.”
A Justice Department spokesperson pointed to a July 4 filing in
which McCotter said he decided to drop the charges after meeting
with defense lawyers and other Justice Department lawyers and
conducting his own research and analysis.
In a statement posted on X, Gautam Adani said, “I welcome the
U.S. Court’s decision with humility and deep respect for the
judicial process.”
The judge wrote that his dismissal of the case should not be
interpreted as his agreement with the Justice Department’s
decision to drop the charges or an opinion about the merits of
the case. He asked the Justice Department to submit more
information to help him decide whether to dismiss charges
against additional defendants.
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 energy plant, then misleading
U.S. investors by providing reassuring information about his
company’s anti-corruption practices. Adani Group has
consistently denied wrongdoing.
Adani himself has not appeared in U.S. court to respond to
the charges.
In the July 4 court filing, McCotter said the case was
primarily foreign, hard to prove and inconsistent with the
agency’s current priorities.
In a separate resolution to civil charges brought by the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission, Gautam Adani agreed to pay
$6 million and his nephew, Sagar Adani, agreed to pay $12
million.
Adani Enterprises Limited has separately agreed to pay
$275 million to the U.S. Treasury Department to settle alleged
violations of Iran sanctions.
In the filing, McCotter also denied as false what he called
media stories suggesting he sought to dismiss the case in part
because of a promise by Adani to invest money in the United
States.
In a sworn declaration filed in court on July 15, Adani
acknowledged having previously promised to invest $10 billion in
the U.S. and said his lawyers told the Justice Department in
meetings that the pledge “might be part of a resolution of these
matters.”
Robert Giuffra, a lawyer for Adani, said in a July 15 court
declaration that the defendants had told the Justice Department
the Adani Group was “amenable” to following through on Adani’s
investment pledge as part of a resolution to the case.
Garaufis wrote that he took “no position on the ultimate
propriety of Mr. Giuffra’s repeat attempts to resolve this
bribery case with monetary offers.”
“It is up to the public to decide what effect offers of this
kind have on the equal administration of justice and the rule of
law,” the judge wrote.
Published on August 11, 2026
