{"text":[[{"start":10.2,"text":"A US judge criticised the justice department’s decision to end a criminal case against billionaire Gautam Adani, warning of “concerning” irregularities and accusing a senior official of a “lack of respect for the judiciary”. "}],[{"start":25.75,"text":"Judge Nicholas Garaufis said in a ruling that Trent McCotter, the principal associate deputy attorney-general, appeared to have decided to abandon the case “largely in collaboration” with Adani’s own lawyers. He said it looked “highly unusual” that the decision seemed to have been made without input from trial prosecutors who charged the case. "}],[{"start":43.75,"text":"“As noted throughout this opinion, the irregularities in the decision to dismiss the indictment are concerning,” the judge wrote. The ruling dismissed all counts against Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani but left in place charges against five others. "}],[{"start":59.2,"text":"Adani’s lawyer Robert Giuffra acknowledged in a filing last month that his team twice told the DoJ the Adani Group “would be amenable” to investing $10bn in the US “as part of any resolution” in which prosecutors would drop the case “on the merits”. Giuffra, co-chair of elite firm Sullivan & Cromwell, is also President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer. "}],[{"start":81.6,"text":"The Adani Group, Adani’s conglomerate, was not charged in the DoJ fraud case, which centred on bribery allegations and was filed against individual defendants including Gautam Adani. "}],[{"start":93.85,"text":"Garaufis referred in his ruling to Giuffra’s “repeat attempts to resolve this bribery case with monetary offers” and said: “It is up to the public to decide what effect offers of this kind have on the equal administration of justice and the rule of law.” He found, however, that the offer was not the reason the DoJ dropped the case. "}],[{"start":115.25,"text":"Adani had first pledged the investment in a post on X shortly after Trump was elected in 2024. The post came a week before the indictment against Adani was publicly announced on November 20. "}],[{"start":127.45,"text":"Giuffra said in a court filing that it was “routine for defence counsel to advocate based on the collateral consequences of criminal proceedings on their clients”. "}],[{"start":136.75,"text":"Giuffra declined to comment. A DoJ spokesperson referred to a court filing in which McCotter said he decided to drop the case after meeting defence lawyers and DoJ lawyers, “reviewing hundreds of pages of materials” and “conducting my own research and analysis”."}],[{"start":152.7,"text":"In 2025 Adani’s then-lawyers, Mark Filip at Kirkland & Ellis and Bill Burck at Quinn Emanuel, told prosecutors the indictment jeopardised the Adani Group’s pledge to invest billions in the US, according to people with knowledge of the matter. "}],[{"start":167.6,"text":"A Quinn Emanuel spokesperson said: “We don’t comment on confidential communications. But it is self-evident, considering financing requirements and needed government approvals, that an investor under indictment would have difficulty making a planned investment.” A Kirkland representative did not respond to requests for comment. "}],[{"start":187.85,"text":"Garaufis said language in financial documents, which prosecutors said amounted to misrepresentation, could conceivably be found to be “so generic and vague” that it would be “puffery” that investors could not reasonably rely on. The “possibility of such a finding undermines the strength of the fraud charges”, he said. "}],[{"start":206.04999999999998,"text":"Garaufis declined to immediately dismiss bribery and conspiracy to obstruct justice charges against the other defendants, saying the government should explain itself. Judges have limited powers to prevent prosecutors from ending cases. "}],[{"start":219.7,"text":"The judge’s decision formalises a move by the DoJ in May to abandon a criminal fraud case against Adani, Asia’s richest person. In that case, prosecutors said Adani and others conspired to bribe Indian government officials and did not disclose this to US investors. It could only have gone to trial if the defendants had arrived in the US, either voluntarily or through extradition. "}],[{"start":245,"text":"The DoJ’s decision to drop the case came within days of other measures in which Adani brought an end to a series of legal headaches. "}],[{"start":254.1,"text":"The Securities and Exchange Commission settled civil charges against Gautam and Sagar Adani related to the alleged bribery scheme, and Adani Enterprises agreed to pay $275mn to the US Treasury to settle a separate probe into alleged violations of Iran sanctions."}],[{"start":274.2,"text":"The Adanis never came to the US to answer the charges in the criminal or civil cases and have denied wrongdoing."}],[{"start":281.3,"text":"The ruling closes a damaging chapter for Adani’s conglomerate, which has spent the past three years battling fraud accusations, including a short seller attack from now-defunct Hindenburg Research."}],[{"start":292.6,"text":"The allegations threatened Adani’s access to international capital and tarnished the reputation of one of India’s most important corporations, which is deeply embedded in the country’s infrastructure and spread across industries including coal, cement, renewable energy and ports."}],[{"start":308.3,"text":"Indian opposition parties repeatedly used the allegations as lines of attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose political rise in Gujarat coincided with Adani’s corporate ascent in the same state. "}],[{"start":321.6,"text":"Adani has rejected accusations of undue favouritism or wrongdoing, while openly tying his corporate strategy to the prime minister’s development goals. "}],[{"start":330.65000000000003,"text":"US judges do not typically intervene when prosecutors move to drop a case. But in recent months Garaufis has scrutinised the decision and sought further information, including about the $10bn investment pledge. "}],[{"start":343.20000000000005,"text":"Last month McCotter told the judge the pledge was a “non-consideration” in his decision to drop the case and said it was “risible to suggest that the Managing Partner of Sullivan & Cromwell [Giuffra] who is perhaps the most respected and experienced securities attorney in the country, would propose any kind of improper resolution”."}],[{"start":361.6,"text":"Giuffra told the judge in a declaration dated July 14 that he brought up the $10bn investment offer “to underscore that a collateral consequence of the pendency of these charges was the adverse impact on the [Adani] Group’s ability to invest in the United States and on the US-India trade relationship”. "}],[{"start":381.3,"text":"Giuffra said in the declaration that in May, Joseph Nocella, head of the Brooklyn federal prosecutors’ office, which brought the Adani case, had told him that his office “categorically rejected” an offer to “resolve the criminal charges . . . by, in part, a general proposal to invest $10 billion in the United States”. "}],[{"start":400.45,"text":"McCotter previously told the court that one reason to drop the case was that it had been unsealed at the end of the Biden administration “apparently as a ‘name and shame’ designed to levy accusations without any realistic prospect of a trial ever occurring”."}],[{"start":414.34999999999997,"text":"Garaufis said that was a “baseless assertion” that was “unbecoming of his office”."}],[{"start":419.34999999999997,"text":"In a post on X, Adani said: “I welcome the US court’s decision with humility and deep respect for the judicial process."}],[{"start":427.4,"text":"“Throughout this challenging period, our faith in truth, fairness and the rule of law remained unwavering.”"}],[{"start":434.25,"text":"According to Bloomberg data, Adani’s wealth has increased by $27.2bn this year to $112bn, overtaking Mukesh Ambani to make him Asia’s wealthiest individual."}],[{"start":453,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1786508772_4357.mp3"}