DOJ defends decision to drop criminal charges against billionaire Indian businessman

The Justice Department defended its decision to drop its criminal case against billionaire Indian businessman Gautam Adani, saying his reported pledge to invest billions of dollars in the U.S. did not influence the move.

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In a letter, Trent McCotter, the principal associate attorney general, said the government decided to forgo the charges before the offer was ever raised, arguing that the case was “so indefensible.”

“I would have sought dismissal of the securities charges regardless of any mentions of investments, regardless of whether the civil case (or any other matter) was settled or otherwise resolved,” he wrote.

Adani and others were indicted in 2024 in Brooklyn, New York, where federal prosecutors accused them of a massive fraud and bribery scheme. Prosecutors said Adani paid Indian government officials $250 million to win a bid to develop the country’s largest solar power plant.

The contracts were projected to generate $2 billion in profits over 20 years.

Prosecutors alleged that Adani also misled U.S. investors by concealing the payments to Indian officials.

Adani, who has close ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi , was never arrested in connection with the charges or brought to the U.S. to face trial.

His lawyer, Robert J. Giuffra Jr., declined to comment Monday.

Giuffra previously said the government decided to drop the case after months of “detailed and extensive communications and meetings” with the Justice Department, which included written submissions, expert testimony and presentations, according to a filing.

In his letter to U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, McCotter argued that the case is a foreign matter and that the alleged misconduct centers on Indians trying to bribe other Indians. The word “India” comes up in the filing well over 200 times, he said.

“The United States pretending to be the world police can cause diplomatic strife and also wastes resources better spent on domestic concerns,” McCotter wrote. “India can better manage its internal systems than can prosecutors in Brooklyn and Washington.”

He said U.S. investors didn’t lose a “single penny” on the transactions that prosecutors relied on to bring the charges.

In May, the government asked for the indictment to be permanently thrown out, saying it had “reviewed this case and has decided, in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants.”

The request was signed by McCotter, as well as Joseph Nocella, the U.S. attorney for Brooklyn. It did not include signatures from line prosecutors assigned to the case.

A month later, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, and Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, asked acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in a letter about the “reportedly ‘transactional nature’” of the decision to drop the case.

Reports of an investment pledge raised “serious questions about corruption under President Trump and about the role that Mr. Adani’s politically salient offer played in the DOJ’s decision,” the senators said.

Garaufis has not yet signed off on the Justice Department’s request.