Gautam Adani reaches settlement deal in US criminal fraud case

(Sharecast News) - Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and his nephew have settled a civil fraud lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding alleged bribery and fraud tied to the Adani Green's solar contracts in India.

Adani Green Energy Limited, a renewable energy company that it majority-owned by the Indian conglomerate Adani Group, said in a regulatory filing on Friday that Gautam and Sagar Adani have consented to "entry of the final judgment without admitting or denying the allegations made in the civil complaint".

While no charges were brought against the company, which had previous called the allegations "baseless", the pair have agreed to settle, with Gautam set to pay $6m and Sagar on the hook for $12m.

The civil complaint, which was filed in 2024 against the Adanis and execs at Azure Power, related to a supposed "massive bribery scheme" orchestrated to enable the companies to capitalise on a multi-billion-dollar solar energy project awarded by the Indian government. During the alleged scheme, Adani Green in particular raised more than $175m from US investors.

"According to the SEC's complaint, Gautam and Sagar Adani orchestrated a bribery scheme that involved paying or promising to pay the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian government officials to secure their commitment to purchase energy at above-market rates that would benefit Adani green and Azure Power," according to the original SEC statement.

The potential dropping of criminal fraud charges by the US Justice Department comes after Gautam Adani promised to invest $10bn into the US economy following Donald Trump's election in 2024.