US probes into Gautam Adani bribery, fraud, sanctions near end

The legal woes of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani in the U.S. are nearing an end as authorities move to close investigations on charges of bribery, fraud, and buying Iranian-sanctioned energy against the businessman and his firm.

On Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department settled a case against Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of the Adani Group, involving the purchase of sanctioned Iranian energy between November 2023 and June 2025.

The Indian firm has agreed to pay $275 million to settle "its potential civil liability for apparent violations of OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] sanctions on Iran," according to an official statement.

The company had purchased shipments of liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, from a Dubai-based trader that "purported to supply Omani and Iraqi gas" but overlooked red flags indicating that the supplies originated in Iran, the U.S. regulator said.

It added that the settlement reflects "violations were egregious and not voluntarily self-disclosed."

Adani Group did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comments.

The Adani group oversees a sprawling business empire spanning ports, power, and infrastructure, comprising several publicly traded companies, with the Adani family holding majority stakes in several firms.

In another major relief for the Indian business group, the U.S. Department of Justice also said it would drop criminal charges in a bribery and fraud probe against Gautam Adani, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

The DOJ's move was anticipated after the Securities and Exchange Commission last week moved to settle its civil lawsuit against Adani and his nephew, Sagar Adani.

The SEC's civil lawsuit had alleged that the two men misled investors as part of a bribery and fraud scheme tied to solar contracts in India, the same charges that were being investigated by the DOJ as well.

As per the WSJ report, the DOJ has reviewed the case and "decided not to devote further resources to these criminal charges" against Adani and the others.

In November 2024, a New York federal court had indicted Adani along with seven others on charges related to a massive bribery and fraud scheme, which the Adani Group had denied as "baseless."

The people were accused of having paid Indian government officials more than $250 million in bribes to obtain solar energy supply contracts worth more than $2 billion in profits.

Although the alleged conduct at the center of the DOJ case occurred in India, the defendants were charged with misleading U.S. and international investors about their company's compliance with anti-bribery and anti-corruption practices while raising over $3 billion to fund those energy contracts.

According to a New York Times report last week, Adani's legal team had proposed that the Indian businessman was willing to invest $10 billion in the American economy and create 15,000 jobs, if the DOJ dropped the charges.

The recent wave of easing of legal uncertainty in the U.S. could help reopen international capital markets for the Adani Group and accelerate its renewable and infrastructure expansion plans.

The group had nearly 2.78 trillion rupees (about $32 billion) in net debt as of September of 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.