Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani visits the VIP jetty ghat during the Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India, on January 21, 2025. Photographer: Indranil Aditya/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s legal woes in the United States are nearing an end as authorities move to close an investigation into the businessman and his company on charges of bribery, fraud and Iranian-sanctioned energy purchases.
On Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department Adani Enterprisesa flagship company of the Adani Group, is involved in sanctioned Iranian energy purchases from November 2023 to June 2025.
An official statement said the Indian company agreed to pay $275 million to resolve “potential civil liability for apparent violations of OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) sanctions against Iran.”
US regulators said the company had been buying shipments of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from a Dubai-based trader “purporting to supply gas from Oman and Iraq” but had missed red flags indicating the source was Iran.
It added that the settlement reflects that “the violations were egregious and were not voluntarily disclosed.”
Adani Group did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The Adani Group oversees a vast business empire spanning ports, power and infrastructure, and is comprised of several listed companies, in which the Adani family holds majority stakes.
Remedies in Department of Justice Investigations
In another major relief for Indian business groups, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would drop criminal charges in its bribery and fraud investigation against Gautam Adani, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The Justice Department’s move was expected after the Securities and Exchange Commission last week moved to settle a civil lawsuit against Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani.
The SEC’s civil lawsuit alleges the two misled investors as part of a bribery and fraud scheme related to solar power contracts in India, and the Justice Department was also investigating similar charges.
The Justice Department reviewed the case and “decided not to devote further resources to these criminal charges” against Adani and others, the WSJ reported.
In November 2024, a New York federal court indicted Adani, along with seven others, on charges related to a massive bribery and fraud scheme, which the group denied as “baseless.”
People are accused of paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain solar energy supply contracts worth more than $2 billion in profits.
Although the alleged conduct at the center of the Justice Department’s case occurred in India, the defendants are accused of misleading U.S. and foreign investors about their companies’ compliance with anti-bribery and anti-corruption practices while raising more than $3 billion to fund energy contracts.
The New York Times reported last week that Adani’s lawyers had proposed that the Indian businessman intends to invest $10 billion in the American economy and create 15,000 jobs if the Justice Department drops the charges.
The recent wave of easing legal uncertainty in the US could help Adani Group reopen international capital markets and accelerate its renewable energy and infrastructure expansion plans.
The group had net debt of nearly 2.78 trillion rupees (about $32 billion) as of September last year, according to company data. Global banks and capital markets account for 41% of Adani Group’s total debt.
—CNBC’s April Roach contributed to this report.
