The Donald Trump-led US administration moved to dismiss criminal fraud charges against Gautam Adani on Monday, while also settling alleged Iran sanctions violations involving his flagship Adani Enterprises, according to court records.
The US Department of Justice permanently dropped all criminal charges against Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani, bringing high-profile securities and wire fraud case in New York to a complete close after prosecutors concluded they could not sustain the allegations.
With this, multiple US regulatory and legal investigations involving the group have all closed in the last couple of days. The New York Times had last week reported that Adani’s attorney Robert Giuffra Jr, who is also a personal attorney of US President Donald Trump, had in a presentation said Adani wanted to invest $10 billion in the United States but could not do so because of the cases.
Adani had been accused of agreeing to pay $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials so Adani Group could win approval to develop the country’s largest solar power plant. The Adani Group has consistently denied wrongdoing. Adani is the company’s founder and chairman.
Earlier on Monday, Adani Enterprises Ltd entered into an agreement with the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) by paying an amount of $275 million to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of OFAC sanctions on Iran.
Also Read | SEC, Adanis move for consent judgments in Adani Green Bond issue
This settlement — the second such agreement in the US — is without admitting the allegations made by OFAC, AEL said in an exchange filing. “Pursuant to the settlement agreement, the company has undertaken to pay the settlement amount of $ 275 million to OFAC mitigated from the maximum statutory penalty of $384 million,” it said.
Last week, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had gone for final consent judgments against Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, whom it had earlier accused of making false and misleading statements linked to a 2021 bond offering by Adani Green Energy Ltd. If approved by the court, Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani would have to pay civil monetary penalties of $ 6 million and $12 million, respectively.
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According to OFAC, from November 2023 to June 2025, AEL purchased shipments of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) from a Dubai-based trader purporting to supply Omani and Iraqi gas. Red flags should have put AEL on notice that the LPG actually originated from Iran, OFAC said in a statement.
During this time period, AEL caused US financial institutions to process 32 US dollar- denominated payments totalling approximately $192,104,044 for the shipments, OFAC said. “The settlement amount reflects OFAC’s determination that AEL’s apparent violations were egregious and not voluntarily self-disclosed and further reflects the AEL’s remedial measures following discovery of the conduct and the cooperation AEL provided for OFAC’s investigation,” OFAC said.
In June 2023, AEL entered the liquified petroleum gas (LPG) market by importing LPG and selling to customers in India. However, neither AEL nor any of its affiliates had, prior to this time, traded LPG on their own account through Mundra Port.
“None of the parties involved in AEL’s LPG imports were sanctioned at the time of the LPG shipments, and none of the documentation provided to AEL contained any information explicitly pointing to Iranian origin of the LPG. However, AEL and APSEZ sanctions compliance programme did not include other measures to account for risks arising from its dealings,” it said.
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OFAC said from the earliest days of the relationship, a number of red flags called into question the true source of the Dubai supplier’s cargo. On at least four separate occasions between March 2023 and February 2024, AEL learned of third-party concerns that cargos supplied by the Dubai Supplier may have originated in Iran, OFAC said.
“AEL acted recklessly and had reason to know of the Apparent Violations due to the presence of red flags pointing to potential links to Iran. These included warnings received from third parties that LPG cargos being imported by AEL may have been of Iranian-origin, and the economic, commercial, and logistical implausibility of the cargos’ origin and pricing,” it said.
On the mitigating factors, OFAC said AEL provided substantial cooperation to OFAC, including by conducting a thorough, independent internal investigation on an expedited basis and at substantial cost, responding promptly to OFAC’s requests for information, and providing large volumes of data regarding the Apparent Violations.
“AEL has implemented significant remedial measures to respond to the Apparent Violations, including ceasing imports of LPG into India, enhancing its sanctions compliance policy and controls, and implementing certain compliance commitments,” it said.
