Gautam Adani seeks dismissal of US SEC fraud case

Gautam Adani is asking a U.S. federal court to throw out the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil fraud case against him and his nephew Sagar Adani, arguing that the claims are legally and jurisdictionally flawed.

What the SEC case is about

The SEC’s lawsuit, filed in November 2024, accuses Adani and his nephew of orchestrating a scheme to pay or promise hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian government officials to secure contracts for Adani Green Energy. The regulator alleges that they caused Adani Green to mislead investors by failing to disclose this scheme in documents related to a $750 million bond offering in 2021.

Why Adani wants it dismissed

Adani’s lawyers contend that the case is an “impermissible extraterritorial application” of U.S. securities laws because the defendants, the alleged misconduct, and the underlying bond offering are all based in India, and the bonds were never traded on a U.S. exchange. They also argue that the SEC lacks proper personal jurisdiction over them and that the allegedly false statements are not legally actionable, citing a lack of evidence and intent to defraud.

Next steps in the case

Adani’s legal team has told a federal judge in Brooklyn that they will file a formal motion to dismiss the SEC’s case by the end of April 2026; the judge is expected to rule on the motion by the end of May. The Adani Group has consistently called the U.S. allegations “baseless” and has separately challenged them in Indian courts.