Judge orders DOJ to explain dropping Adani bribery case

A federal judge in New York refused to immediately end the criminal case against Gautam Adani, ordering the Justice Department to justify why it wants to drop charges tied to an alleged bribery scheme in India. U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis set a July 13, 2026 deadline for the government’s response, keeping the case alive for now and forcing prosecutors to explain a reversal in one of the most closely watched corporate prosecutions in recent years.

The order came in the Eastern District of New York case filed on October 24, 2024 and announced publicly on November 20, 2024. The five-count indictment charged Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and Adani Green executive Vneet S. Jaain, along with additional defendants in related allegations, with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud. The Justice Department said the case involved a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions through false and misleading statements.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed parallel civil charges the same day. In its complaint, the SEC alleged Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani orchestrated a scheme to pay or promise hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian government officials in exchange for energy-purchase commitments at above-market rates tied to a renewable-energy project in India. The alleged conduct sat at the center of a politically sensitive and financially significant fight over how far U.S. anti-corruption and securities laws can reach when the conduct is alleged to have unfolded overseas.

Adani’s lawyers have argued the case falls outside U.S. jurisdiction and that prosecutors cannot prove the alleged bribery in India. The Justice Department, meanwhile, told the court it did not want to devote further resources to the prosecution. Judge Garaufis did not accept that as enough to end the matter immediately, a sign that the court wants a fuller record before approving the government’s retreat.

The stakes extend beyond the courtroom. The alleged bribery scheme has been described as about $265 million, while Adani Green raised $750 million in a September 2021 note offering that included U.S. investors. Broader financing linked to the group between 2021 and 2024 exceeded $3 billion. With Adani Group one of India’s most powerful business empires, the decision to seek dismissal has raised a larger question about whether powerful multinational defendants are being treated differently when prosecutors decide to walk away from a high-profile case.