The Justice Department has filed to permanently drop fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, marking a highly unusual decision that will require federal judge approval. According to court filings, the DOJ has decided "in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants." The filing was signed by a senior Justice Department official and the Brooklyn U.S. attorney, but notably excluded the names of any line prosecutors working on the case, possibly indicating their lack of support for the decision. Adani's legal team from Sullivan & Cromwell included two of Trump's personal attorneys: co-chair Robert Giuffra Jr. and partner James McDonald. This development comes as part of the Trump administration's broader retreat from aggressive white-collar enforcement, echoing similar moves like the Justice Department's decision to drop charges against then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
According to reports from Reuters and the US Treasury, Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) has reached a $275 million settlement with the US Treasury for purchasing $192 million worth of sanctioned Iranian gas between November 2023 and June 2025. The company informed stock exchanges that it purchased liquified petroleum gas from a Dubai-based trader, who led AEL to believe the gas was from Oman and Iraq. AEL paid a total of $192,104,044 for the gas in 32 dollar-denominated tranches via US financial institutions. As part of the settlement, AEL has committed to 'implement any additional necessary measures to reduce the risk of recurrence of apparent violations in the future' without admitting fault. The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control confirmed that 'AEL agreed to settle its potential civil liability for 32 apparent violations of OFAC's Iran sanctions' in a statement on Monday.
As reported by Mint, AEL ended FY26 with a profit of ₹10,777 crore, making the $275 million settlement approximately a fourth of the company's net profit. The settlement, along with recent SEC and DOJ developments, effectively ends all ongoing US investigations involving the Adani Group. Late last week, Adani and his nephew had paid $18 million to settle a separate suit brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission following allegations of false statements in connection with Indian solar contracts. In February, Adani Enterprises had said it was cooperating with the US probe into the potential sanctions violations that resulted in Monday's settlement announcement. The DOJ's decision to drop fraud charges against Adani comes as part of the Trump administration's broader move to resolve investigations against the businessman, with the Securities and Exchange Commission having announced a $6 million settlement deal with Adani to resolve agency charges last week.
According to Mint, OFAC determined that red flags should have put AEL on notice that the LPG actually originated from Iran, and that the company did not voluntarily self-disclose the apparent violations of Iran-related sanctions. The first shipment in November 2023 was purported to have been loaded in Sohar, Oman, but Sohar at the time did not have facilities for exporting fully-refrigerated LPG. OFAC noted that the gas purchased by Adani was priced at a significant discount to prevalent market prices, which should have alerted the company to exercise greater scrutiny. The Treasury alleged the company had 'acted recklessly' and ignored warnings that it may have been importing liquefied petroleum gas from Iran. OFAC stated that the 'apparent violations were egregious and not voluntarily self-disclosed' and criticized the company for failing to conduct appropriate due diligence on vessels and overlooking the 'economic, commercial, and logistical implausibility of the cargos' origin and pricing'.
As reported by Mint, the Wall Street Journal had reported on June 2, 2025, that US prosecutors were investigating whether AEL imported Iranian LPG. The company made a voluntary outreach to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) after these reports. The WSJ had conducted an investigation into LPG tankers travelling between Adani's Mundra port in Gujarat and the Persian Gulf, noting that these vessels exhibited behaviour typical of vessels trying to obscure their activities. This settlement represents the latest case resolved by the Trump administration with Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who founded Adani Enterprises. The settlement comes as the Treasury Department has been seeking to step up its sanctions targeting Iranian energy as part of a campaign dubbed 'Economic Fury,' which is designed to squeeze Iran's economy. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday called on G7 allies to beef up their sanctions against Iran, while the DOJ's decision to drop charges against Adani underscores the new age of light-touch enforcement that Trump's regulators and prosecutors have taken to the business world since last year.
