The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken a significant step toward advancing its case against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani by arranging to serve him with a civil fraud lawsuit. This development allows the SEC’s legal proceedings to move forward in federal court.
In a Friday filing in Brooklyn, New York, the SEC and U.S.-based attorneys representing Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani announced that they have agreed to accept the SEC’s legal documents, removing the need for U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis to decide on the proper method of service.
If the court approves this agreement, the Adanis will have 90 days to respond to the SEC’s complaint, which could include motions to dismiss the case. Both lawyers, Robert Giuffra for Gautam Adani and Sean Hecker for Sagar Adani, declined to comment.
The SEC originally filed charges in November 2024, accusing the Adanis of violating U.S. securities laws by allegedly orchestrating a scheme to pay or promise hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian government officials to benefit Adani Green Energy, where both are executives and directors.
The defendants are currently in India, and the SEC previously reported difficulty in serving them with legal papers. A related criminal case was also filed in November 2024 against the Adanis and others, but there have been no public updates on that case for over a year. The SEC’s civil case remained stalled for much of that period.
Gautam Adani, 63, is the founder and chairman of the Adani Group, with a net worth estimated at approximately $59 billion by Forbes.