Billionaire businessman Gautam Adani’s nearly two-year legal battle in the US has ended with the dismissal of the criminal case against him. A parallel civil securities case concluded with penalties.

On August 10, US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis dismissed the criminal indictment against Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and Adani Green Energy director Vneet Jaain "with prejudice". In its filing to the stock exchanges, Adani Green Energy said on Tuesday, "with prejudice" meant a "complete dismissal" that bars any prosecution against the three over the same allegations and the case cannot be reopened.

The development brings to a close a legal saga that began in November 2024 as a criminal indictment alleging bribery and securities fraud eventually split into three separate legal tracks: a criminal prosecution by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), a civil securities-fraud case brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and a separate sanctions matter involving Adani Enterprises and the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Brief history of Gautam Adani's US Case form November 2024 to August 2026:

November 2024: Criminal charges

A US grand jury formally indicted Adani, Sagar Adani and others on October 24, 2024, after prosecutors presented their allegations. The 54-page indictment alleged that between 2020 and 2024, the defendants were involved in three broad schemes: paying about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar-energy contracts, misleading US and international investors to raise billions of dollars, and obstructing US investigations.

The indictment was subsequently unsealed by a New York federal court on November 20, 2024.

January 2026: Summons process begins

In early 2026, the SEC sought assistance from Indian authorities to serve summons on Gautam Adani and others linked to the case. The move triggered volatility in Adani Group stocks.

April 2026: Adani seeks dismissal

In April, Gautam and Sagar Adani formally moved to dismiss the SEC lawsuit in a US court.

Their lawyers argued that the alleged conduct took place entirely in India, that US securities laws did not apply, and that the court lacked jurisdiction. They also denied any investor harm or evidence of bribery.

May 2026: DOJ seeks dismissal

The case changed direction under the Trump administration. On May 18, the DOJ asked the court to dismiss the indictment with prejudice.

After extensive discussions between Adani's lawyers and the US government, the department said it had reviewed the case and, in its "prosecutorial discretion", decided not to devote further resources to the criminal charges.

The court record says Adani's legal team submitted hundreds of pages of legal arguments, expert reports and other material to the DOJ and SEC during 2026.

July 2026: The $10-billion investment question

In an order dated July 8, Judge Garaufis sought more clarity on whether Adani's publicly announced plan to invest $10 billion in the US in November 2024 had any connection with the decision to drop the prosecution.

In an affidavit filed in the response to the order, Adani said he was "not aware of anything promised, offered, sought, received, agreed to, or accepted by anyone in connection with the dismissal of the Indictment". Nevertheless, Adani's legal counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, indicated during settlement discussions, the proposed investment could potentially form part of a resolution if US authorities chose to consider it.

The court record, attached with the regulatory filings by the company, also shows that the US Attorney's Office had explicitly rejected that proposal.

August 10: Criminal case dismissed

After reviewing all the material prepared by the defence counsel and DOJ counsel, Judge Garaufis granted the department's request in part and dismissed the securities and wire-fraud related counts against Adani, Sagar Adani and Jaain. The judge reserved judgment on certain charges against five non-appearing defendants.

The judge was critical of some of the government's reasoning for seeking dismissal. For instance, he said the DOJ's assertion that there had been "no financial loss" was unsupported and did not explain why that consideration justified dropping all the charges. He similarly rejected as unsupported the suggestion that the indictment had been unsealed as a political "name and shame" exercise, saying there was not "a scintilla of evidence" that the timing or charging decisions were politically motivated.

That makes the final outcome more nuanced than a simple clearing of Adani by the US court. The judge allowed the prosecution to end, but did not rule that the original allegations were false.

SEC civil case also ends

Separately, the SEC's civil case against Gautam and Sagar Adani was resolved on August 10 through final judgments entered with their consent, without admitting the allegations of the Complaint.

Under the judgments, Gautam Adani is required to pay a $6 million civil penalty, while Sagar Adani is required to pay $12 million. Both are permanently restrained from violating specified US securities laws.

AGEL's exchange filing says the judgment "disposes of the SEC's civil complaint" and records that there is "no material adverse impact" on the company's financial, operational or other activities.

The criminal and civil proceedings therefore ended in very different ways. The criminal case was dismissed by the court after the DOJ chose not to pursue it further. The SEC case ended through consent judgments involving monetary penalties and injunctions, without an admission of the allegations.

Welcoming the dismissal, Adani said his faith in "truth, fairness and the rule of law" had remained unwavering through the legal battle.