The U.S. government has agreed to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that accused Gautam Adani and his nephew, Sagar Adani, of concealing an alleged bribery scheme connected to a large solar project in India, according to court filings published Thursday. The settlement would resolve the SEC’s claims without an admission of wrongdoing, the filings said.
The SEC’s allegations, brought in a lawsuit filed in late 2024, focused on the way the project was described to investors and how contracts were secured. The agency said the Adanis and their companies promised payments to Indian government officials in return for access to government contracts tied to the purchase of energy at inflated rates.
In the same complaint, the SEC alleged that Adani Green Energy Limited secured several billions of dollars from Wall Street investors while being held out as having strong anti-bribery compliance safeguards. The regulator said senior management gave promises that no bribery would take place and that investors were assured the company maintained a robust program to prevent bribery.
Under the terms reflected in the court documents, Gautam Adani agreed to pay $6 million in civil penalties, while Sagar Adani agreed to pay $12 million. The proposed settlement does not include an admission of guilt, the filings show.
The Adani Group denied the allegations when the SEC case was filed, calling them baseless. Messages left for both the Adanis’ attorneys were not returned, the Associated Press reported.
Separately, the Associated Press said both men were indicted in late 2024 in New York on charges of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. The report cited the New York Times and Bloomberg as saying the charges are likely to be dropped, and it said messages left with prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York were not returned.
The Associated Press also linked the charge-disposition discussion to political developments in the United States. It reported that expectations in India rose after President Donald Trump was elected to a second term and Gautam Adani publicly praised him, and that in March 2025 Trump suspended the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The underlying civil and criminal cases have unfolded against a broader backdrop of scrutiny of the Adani Group’s rise and its relationships with government. The company became a major figure in India’s energy and infrastructure landscape after Gautam Adani built a fortune in coal in the 1990s, and it later expanded into industries including renewable energy, defense and agriculture.
The Associated Press said analysts have pointed to Gautam Adani’s ability to align the group’s priorities with those of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, while critics have accused the Adani Group of crony capitalism and preferential treatment in winning contracts. The Adani Group denied those claims, and the Associated Press noted that the firm has also faced criticism from Hindenburg Research, which has accused Adani and the company of “brazen stock manipulation” and “accounting fraud.”