Adani group survives yet another challenge in the US
On Saturday July 4, as the United States of America celebrated its 250th anniversary, the district court for the Eastern District of New York withdrew a prosecution launched in 2024 against the Adani group describing it as “legally flawed” and “diplomatically counterproductive”, which should have been dropped a year ago or “never brought in the first place”.
With this, the group has survived yet another challenge, three years after bucking the Hindenburg sham emanating in American shores which had sent its share price plummeting and affected the health of the Indian stock market as a whole.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) had, in the Biden regime, indicted the Adani group for allegedly being involved in a scheme to bribe government officials in India to the tune of $ 250 million and lie to investors to receive billions more in investments—focus being on investments raised in the US by Adani Green Energy Limited.
Responding to the Judge Nicholas Garufis’ query as to why the charge was being dropped, DOJ attorney R Trent McCotter responded, “This is a foreign case”. He further asserted “The US pretending to be world police can cause diplomatic strife and also waste resources better spent on domestic concerns.”
“India can better manage its internal systems than can prosecutors in Brooklyn and Washington DC,” McCoter added.
Six overreaching reasons were cited for dropping all charges.
*No investor suffered any losses
*The indictment was unsealed in the final days of the Biden Administration, apparently as a ‘name and shame’ designed to levy accusations without any realistic prospect of a trial ever occurring.
*Failed FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) charges were spun into securities charges: Securities charges ought not to have been brought at all.
*DOJ stated that agencies in India, who alone have jurisdiction in the matter , have investigated and no ‘actionable misconduct’ had been detected.
*DOJ said that if the case was pursued then prosecution would have faced ‘substantial practical obstacles. There would have been ‘extraordinary proof problems in this case’.
*Allegations did not merit criminal prosecution – at the very most a civil resolution may have been envisaged.
In its submission DOJ candidly stated, “the department should be credited for ending these criminal security charges before having to endure a likely loss on the merits”.
The concluding submission of the DOJ filing before Judge Garaufis sums up the agony undergone by the defendants, the Adani group : “… the defendants have been held in a limbo on charges that should have been dropped a year ago—or never brought in the first place.”
Judge Graufis is yet to pronounce his verdict.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
