A US federal judge has ordered the Justice Department (DOJ) to explain why it dropped criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani.
The order was issued on Friday, a month after the DOJ announced it would not proceed with the prosecution. Adani’s lawyers had asked Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the Brooklyn federal court to formally dismiss the case on Wednesday.
In a written ruling released with court records the same day, Judge Garaufis said the federal prosecutors’ notice of abandoning the case did not sufficiently explain their decision. He set a deadline of July 13 for the DOJ to provide further information.
The judge wrote: “The government’s short, perfunctory, and conclusory statement provides the court with no basis for any conclusion, nor any opportunity to conduct any analysis of the government’s motion to dismiss the case.”
Robert Giuffra, a lawyer representing Adani, had submitted a letter to Judge Garaufis on Wednesday, arguing that the case should be dismissed because it fell outside the scope of US law and that prosecutors would be unable to prove bribery accusations in India.
The DOJ dropped the charges after Adani pledged a $10 billion investment in the United States.
Adani, who now ranks 17th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, was charged in 2024 with conspiring to bribe Indian government officials to secure solar power plant contracts. The case emerged amid other allegations that his company misled US investors about its anti-corruption practices. Adani has consistently denied all wrongdoing.
The decision to drop the case in May came after Adani retained Giuffra, a lawyer also serving as a personal attorney for President Donald Trump. A member of Giuffra’s team, James McDonald, has been tapped by Trump to serve as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan. McDonald was also part of the legal team that helped Adani secure a favorable outcome last month in a case originally brought by the DOJ under President Joe Biden.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg News reported that Adani met with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, in November while the investigation was still active. The news outlet did not disclose the content of that meeting.
