By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) – Lawyers for Gautam Adani on Wednesday urged a U.S. judge to formally dismiss criminal charges against the Indian billionaire, after the Justice Department said last month it would no longer pursue the prosecution.
• 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 U.S. investors by providing reassuring information about his company’s anti-corruption practices.
• In a letter to Brooklyn-based U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, Adani’s lawyer, Robert Giuffra, wrote that the case should be dismissed because it was beyond the reach of U.S. law and because the prosecutors would not be able to prove the alleged bribery in India.
• Adani Group has consistently denied wrongdoing.
• Garaufis must sign off on the dismissal of the case.
• Giuffra wrote that the Justice Department’s decision to drop the indictment came after “months of detailed and extensive communications and meetings with counsel” for Adani and his co-defendants.
• Giuffra also urged Garaufis to formally dismiss civil charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after the regulator reached a settlement in which Adani would pay $6 million and his nephew, Sagar Adani, would pay $12 million.
• Adani Enterprises Limited has separately agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury Department $275 million to settle alleged violations of Iran sanctions.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
