Washington DC: The Department of Justice(DoJ) of the United States has outrightly dismissed the civil and criminal charges imposed against Indian businessman Gautam Adani by outlining it as legally flawed. The justice department also refuted the charges against seven others for “legal and pragmatic reasons”.
In a 10 page filing, the US Department of Justice wrote, “given that there were no victims who suffered any losses, the resolution of (a) civil case made it even more obvious that there was no point in pursuing criminal securities charges for the same conduct. Even if the criminal case were to continue, no victim would stand to recover any restitution, because there were no losses to recover”.
The Justice Department also urged the US District judge Nicholas Garaufis to completely drop the case, as it does not have strong legal background. The detailed filing from the justice department was produced, after judge Nicholas Garaufis asked the department to explain the reasons to permanently drop the case.
The charges can affect Indo-US diplomatic relations
In the 10 page filing the department also reiterated that the indictment should have been dropped a year ago or never brought in the first place. The indictment is preoccupied with prejudices, the filing said. The US justice department also said that the charges against the Indian businessman were diplomatically counter-productive and the case can trigger diplomatic scuffle between Washington DC and New DElhi, thus the larger bilateral and strategic relations can be potentially impacted.
The US Department of Justice further argued that courts have limited role in reviewing prosecutorial decisions to abandon criminal cases and warned that forcing prosecutors to justify such decisions publicly would undermine the executive branch’s constitutional authority. “Judicial inquisitions into the bases for dismissal will expose privileged internal debates”, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter wrote.
Trent McCotter further argued that he personally reviewed hundreds of pages of submissions, held months of meetings with defence lawyers and conducted an independent legal assessment before recommending dismissal of charges imposed on Gautam Adani.
This is a foreign case & US cannot act as world police
The Department of Justice further asserted that the case is overwhelmingly centred in India and the Indian authorities have hitherto investigated the issue and have implied that no misconduct is found and investors had not suffered from any financial loss. The prosecution also suffered from significant evidentiary loss, the US Justice Department further observed.
The justice department thus inferred that the US should not pretend as world police, as it might be diplomatically counterproductive and cause strife between New Delhi and Washington DC. “India can better manage its internal systems than can prosecutors in Brooklyn and Washington”, McCotter wrote.
The US Justice Department filing further ascertained that the alleged conduct did not involve criminal organizations, did not have any effect on US companies, did not in any way implicate national security, was not egregious and has been the subject of investigations in India. Thus, the department urged the US district court to drop the cases. “Not a single penny has ever been lost on the securities at issue”, the Justice Department filing stated.
Origin of the case
In 2024, the US Department of Justice under the Biden administration, indicted Indian businessman Gautam Adani and seven others by alleging that they were involved in a sophisticated scam to pay about USD 250 million in bribes to the Indian government officials and also misled the investors about raising billions of dollars. Adani Green Energy Ltd raised at least USD 175 million from US investors during the period in question, the case had alleged.
However, the Department of Justice(DoJ) currently under the Trump administration has refuted the charges as legally flawed, diplomatically concerning and completely pertaining to India, away from the jurisdiction of the United States. “The indictment was unsealed in the final days of the prior Administration, apparently as a ‘name and shame’ designed to levy accusations without any realistic prospect of a trial ever occurring. The department leadership at the time was surely aware they were dropping a potential quagmire of a case into the lap of the incoming Administration, and perhaps that was an intentional choice”, DoJ filing asserted.
The indictment was brought by a district court of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission in a combination of criminal and civil charges. The US prosecutors levelled five counts of charges against the Adani Group in 2024. The Adanis were charged with securities and wire fraud. But the DoJ now has decided to drop those charges and urged the court also to dismiss the case.
