India Not Cooperating in Adani Bribery Case, SEC Alleges in US Court

Indian authorities have failed to act on its requests to serve summons and complaints to Adani Group executives, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is probing alleged security fraud and USD 265 million bribery scam against the Indian firm, told the court on Friday (October 10).

Reuters reported that the case against the Adani group has caught national attention in the US amidst the state regulator’s attempts to get the Indian authorities to cooperate in the matter.

In 2024, prosecutors of Brooklyn indicted the Adani group of allegedly bribing Indian officials to buy electricity produced by Adani Green Energy, a subsidiary of the Indian conglomerate. The SEC complaint claimed that the Indian executives who benefitted from the bribes then “misled” US investors about the company’s anti-graft practices by providing falsely reassuring information.

Both the Indian law and justice ministry and the Adani Group didn’t respond to Reuters’s questions, the latter had called the SEC allegations as “baseless” and said that it will take “all possible legal recourse” to get the accusations dismissed. In January 2025, Adani Green Energy appointed independent law firms to review the charges.

On Friday, the SEC told a New York district court it had repeatedly contacted India’s law ministry in its attempt to serve legal documents to Adani group founder Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani. The latest communication with the ministry was on September 14 but no confirmation of delivery has been acknowledged, the SEC said.

“The SEC will continue communicating with the India Ministry of Law and Justice and pursuing service of the defendants via the Hague Service Convention,” the SEC filing said.