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Gautam Adani, a prominent Indian billionaire industrialist, has agreed to pay a substantial settlement of several million dollars in a U.S. civil court case related to corruption charges, without admitting any wrongdoing, according to his company on Friday. The case, filed in New York in November 2024, alleged that Adani and his team intentionally misled international investors as part of an extensive bribery operation.
The indictment accused Adani of orchestrating an estimated $250 million scheme to bribe Indian officials in exchange for lucrative solar energy supply deals. In response, Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani consented to pay a civil fine totaling $18 million. The company clarified in a letter to the Mumbai stock exchange that this payment was made “without admitting or denying the allegations” outlined in the civil complaint.
This resolution coincides with reports suggesting that U.S. prosecutors are planning to drop charges against Adani, as reported by The New York Times on Thursday. The letter from Adani’s company emphasized that the final court ruling in the U.S. is pending and reaffirmed that the “company is not a party to this proceeding, and no charges have been filed against it.”
The New York Times also noted that the decision to dismiss the charges, which were initiated under the Biden administration, followed Adani’s hiring of a new legal team led by Robert Giuffra, one of former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers.
Adani’s business conglomerate, which spans sectors such as coal, airports, cement, and media, has faced significant scrutiny in recent years over allegations of corporate fraud and declining stock prices. Despite being a close associate of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Adani’s origins trace back to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, where he was born into a middle-class family. He left school at age 16 and relocated to Mumbai to pursue work in the city’s lucrative gem industry.
After a brief period working in his brother’s plastics business, he launched the family’s flagship enterprise in 1988, initially focusing on export activities. His breakthrough came seven years later when he secured a contract to develop and operate a commercial shipping port in Gujarat.
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