US drops fraud charges after billionaire Adani pledges $10bn investment

Businessman Adani was accused on bribing Indian officials and misleading US investors to a secure solar power plant project in India.The administration of United States President Donald Trump has moved to dismiss criminal fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani in a case where he is accused of bribing Indian officials for as much as $265m to secure contracts and lying to US investors to land a solar energy project in India, allegations that his company has long denied.The case was dropped by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) after Adani pledged a $10bn investment in the US.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Tata-ASML deal: How significant is it for India’s semiconductor push?list 2 of 4Trump drops IRS lawsuit, sets up $1.7bn US anti-weaponisation fundlist 3 of 4Elon Musk loses US lawsuit against OpenAIlist 4 of 4NextEra, Dominion to create huge power biz as AI drives US energy demandend of list“The Department of Justice has reviewed this case and has decided, in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants,” the DOJ said in a short letter sent to Judge Nicholas Garaufis at the US District Court in the Eastern District of New York.A judge must still sign off on the DOJ’s request.The case, originally brought by the DOJ under the administration of former US President Joe Biden, accused Adani of bribing officials to secure solar energy contracts at the expense of US investors.“The defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars and Gautam S Adani, Sagar R Adani and Vneet S Jaain lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise capital from US and international investors,” Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said at the time.Adani Green Energy was accused of bribing officials in order to win a contract to build the largest solar power plant in India. Adani allegedly 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.