‘Transactional nature’: US senators question justice department’s request to drop case against Adani

Two Democratic senators in the United States have alleged that a reported proposal by Adani Group chairperson Gautam Adani to invest $10 billion in the US economy if fraud charges against him are dropped appeared to be an “egregious quid pro quo offer”.

In a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal questioned the “transactional nature” of the US Department of Justice’s actions, referring to its request to a court to drop the criminal charges against Adani.

The department of justice on May 18 told a New York judge that it had decided, “in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges”. The judge has not yet approved the request.

Four days earlier, The New York Times reported that the department of justice was planning to drop the charges against Gautam Adani after he hired a legal team led by Robert J Giuffra Jr, one of US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers.

Warren and Blumenthal, in the letter to the acting attorney general on June 11, said that the department of justice’s decision gave the appearance “that Mr. Adani – with the help of one of the President’s personal lawyers – bought his way to criminal immunity, trading the promise of an investment in the United States for immunity from an alleged multi-billion dollar bribery scheme”.

Reports of Adani’s offer to invest in the US economy if the charges against him were dropped appeared to be a “blatant attempt by a wealthy individual to buy his way to leniency,” the senators said.

Warren and Blumenthal said that the department of justice’s decision to drop all charges against him weeks later “gives the appearance that the DOJ is an equal partner in corrupt behaviour”.

The senators sought to know if the White House communicated with the department about the case against Adani, including his alleged offer to invest money in the American economy and help create jobs.

The case

The US authorities had in November 2024 indicted Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani for allegedly orchestrating a $265 million fraud scheme to bribe officials in India for solar energy contracts, and then misrepresenting the company’s anti-bribery practices to investors in the US.

The details of the alleged bribes were concealed to secure financing, the US justice department had claimed.

The Adani Group has denied the allegations. In a stock exchange filing in November 2024, the conglomerate said that Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani had been charged in the US for securities fraud, not bribery.

Even if the criminal charges are dropped, Gautam Adani is still expected to pay financial penalties, the New York Times quoted persons aware of the case as saying last month.