Gautam Adani in talks with Trump admin to drop U.S. bribery charges: Report

Representatives of billionaire Gautam Adani have been lobbying with the Trump administration to drop the bribery charges in the solar deals bribery case, according to Bloomberg.
Gautam Adani
Gautam Adani
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Gautam Adani has been trying to convince the Donald Trump administration to drop the criminal charges against him in the solar contracts bribery case, according to a Bloomberg report.

Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, and others were indicted by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) in November 2024 on various charges, alleging that the defendants paid bribes totalling ₹2,029 crore to secure solar power deals with multiple Indian states, mediated by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). The indictment came days after Trump’s election victory was declared.

Now, Bloomberg reports that Adani and representatives of his companies have been in talks with officials in the Trump administration since January, trying to convince them that Adani’s prosecution doesn’t align with President Trump’s priorities. The talks have intensified in recent weeks, Bloomberg said, citing anonymous sources.

Read: The Indian solar deals embroiled in US indictment against Adani group

A complaint filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was one of the officials whom Adani met and offered bribes to, in exchange for buying solar power from Adani Green Energy through the public sector company SECI.

Gautam Adani met Y.S. Jagan in 2021 and promised a bribe of $200 million, the SEC said.

Following Trump’s election victory and before the indictment in November 2024, Adani had congratulated Trump on X and said that the Adani Group would invest $10 billion in the U.S. in energy and other projects, creating 15,000 jobs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is known to have a close association with Adani, was asked by a reporter during his U.S. visit in February whether he discussed the issue with Trump. PM Modi replied in the negative, calling it a “personal matter.”

According to Bloomberg’s sources, Adani’s associates also reached out to Indian government officials seeking advice on how to deal with Trump regarding the issue. Adani has also hired top lawyers and lobbyists in the U.S. to pursue his case with the Trump administration, the report said. One meeting was held in March with prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn and the main Justice Department.

Some of the people working in the U.S. on behalf of Adani, named by Bloomberg, are Mark Filip of the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, and representatives of a government relations firm called BGR Group, which also represents India in trade talks with the Trump administration, the report said.

In February, Trump issued orders to pause enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), saying the law had been “abused in a manner that harms the interests of the United States.” He said “overexpansive and unpredictable FCPA enforcement against American citizens and businesses” harms the nation’s “economic competitiveness” and “national security.”

Following this, as Bloomberg noted, a bribery case against two former executives of Cognizant Technology Solutions was dropped. They had been charged in 2019 with authorising a $2 million bribe to an Indian official to help obtain a permit for constructing a Cognizant office campus in Chennai.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sought help from Indian authorities in its investigation of the Adani case.

Also read: Allegations on Adani solar deal: Jagan Reddy’s defences don’t hold up

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