Washington, May 16:
When the Justice Department indicted India’s richest man in the final weeks of the Biden administration, prosecutors described an “elaborate” bribery scheme involving “corruption and fraud at the expense of U.S. investors.”
Now, according to several people with knowledge of the case, the Justice Department is planning to drop the charges altogether. The reversal came after the Indian billionaire, Gautam Adani, hired a new legal team led by Robert J. Giuffra Jr., one of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers and the co-chair of the prominent firm Sullivan & Cromwell.
Giuffra’s efforts on Adani’s behalf culminated in a previously unreported meeting last month at the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, according to people familiar with the meeting. Giuffra ticked through about 100 slides outlining why prosecutors lacked basic evidence, as well as the jurisdiction even to bring the case, one of the people said.
Another slide also made an unusual offer: If prosecutors dropped the charges, Adani would be willing to invest $10 billion in the U.S. economy and create 15,000 jobs, echoing a pledge he had made in the wake of Trump’s election.
As part of the same meeting, Giuffra sought to resolve a parallel civil case against Adani brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as a separate investigation by the Treasury Department.
Both of those agencies are now preparing to strike settlements with Adani and impose financial penalties, according to people familiar with the deals.
Although prosecutors later told Giuffra that the $10 billion investment would play no role in the resolution of the criminal case, his offer received a favorable response from at least one senior Justice Department official at the meeting, according to the people familiar with the meeting.