US drops fraud charges after billionaire Adani pledges $10bn in bailouts | Court Affairs

Businessman Adani is accused of bribing Indian officials and misleading US investors to a safe solar project in India.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has moved to drop fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani in a case he is accused of bribing Indian officials to the tune of $265m to win contracts and lying to US investors to build a solar power project in India, allegations his company has long denied.

The case was dropped by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) after Adani promised to pay $10bn in US dollars.

“The Department of Justice has reviewed the matter and has decided, at the discretion of the judges, not to use any of the other charges in the charges,” the DOJ said in a brief sent to Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

A judge must still sign the DOJ’s petition.

The case, which was brought by the DOJ led by former US President Joe Bidenaccused Adani of bribing officials to secure solar contracts at the expense of US funds.

“The defendants conspired to bribe Indian government officials to obtain contracts worth billions of dollars and Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain lied about the bribery in order to obtain money from the US and other countries,” said Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, at the time.

Adani Green Energy has been accused of bribing officials to win a contract to build India’s largest solar power plant. Opponents say they misled investors by providing information about the company’s anti-corruption practices. Prosecutors said he and his alleged co-conspirators raised more than $3bn in the process.

The government’s withdrawal from the case comes amid recent changes in Adani’s legal team. The billionaire, the 17th richest person in the world with a net worth of $108bn according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has appointed to his legal team Robert J Giuffra Jr, who is also one of the lawyers of US President Donald Trump, according to reports from the New York Times last week.

Giuffra Jr said that Adani will pledge $10bn in US investment, which, according to the newspaper, will create 15,000 jobs. He also emphasized, according to the paper, that the billionaire denied the allegations.

Adani said he wanted to invest in the US but “couldn’t do it,” according to Reuters, which cited people not familiar with the matter.

On Monday, the US Treasury Department announced that it had settled $275m with Adani over sanctions violations involving Iran. The company was accused of buying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from a Dubai-based trader allegedly supplying Omani and Iraqi gas that came from Iran.

Adani Enterprises has also stopped importing LPG from India and has created a compliance obligation to ensure compliance with the US Treasury Department’s directives.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also dropped civil charges against Adani last week over alleged bribery, although the deal still needs legal approval.

“If approved by the court, (it) will order Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani to pay monetary penalties of $6,000,000 and $12,000,000 respectively,” the SEC said in a statement released Thursday.

Adani did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.