Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, indicted in the United States in a large corruption case, has agreed to pay a fine of several million dollars without admitting guilt, his group announced on Friday.
The indictment of November 20, 2024, in New York accused the Indian tycoon and several of his subordinates of deliberately misleading international investors in a corruption scheme involving millions of dollars. The 63-year-old industrialist was suspected of being involved in the payment of $250 million (€215 million) in bribes to Indian officials to secure contracts in solar energy in India, at the expense of US investors.
An $18 million fine
Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani have agreed to pay a total fine of $18 million, stating that they do so “without admitting or denying the allegations made in the civil complaint,” according to a letter from Adani Green Energy to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The payment of this penalty comes as the US federal prosecution is reportedly preparing to drop the charges against Gautam Adani, as revealed by the New York Times on Thursday. In his letter, Gautam Adani emphasizes that “no charges have been brought against his company, which is not involved in this process.” The New York Times specifies that the decision to drop the charges, filed in November 2024, came after Gautam Adani hired a new defense team led by Robert Giuffra, one of the lawyers of former President Donald Trump. The Times reports that during a meeting between the defense team and the prosecution at the Justice Department in April, the lawyer argued that if the charges were dropped against him, Gautam Adani would be ready to invest $10 billion in the American economy and create 15,000 jobs.
Heading a commercial empire ranging from coal to airports, cement, and media, the president of the Adani group is considered close to the Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to the Forbes index, he is currently the 24th richest man in the world, with an estimated fortune of $82 billion. He has always dismissed the allegations of the US justice system, calling them “baseless.”
