U.S. SEC to Advance Civil Fraud Case Against Gautam Adani as Legal Teams Resolve Service Impasse

U.S. SEC to Advance Civil Fraud Case Against Gautam Adani as Legal Teams Resolve Service Impasse

The delays sparked international concerns regarding potential political influence, given Gautam Adani’s reputation as a close partner of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

By Rakesh Raman
New Delhi | January 31, 2026

On January 30, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) successfully arranged to serve Gautam Adani with a civil fraud lawsuit, clearing the path for the regulator’s case against the Indian billionaire to move forward. In a filing with the Brooklyn, New York federal court, U.S.-based lawyers for both Gautam Adani and his nephew, Sagar Adani, agreed to accept the legal papers, negating the need for a judge to rule on the method of service. If this resolution is approved, the defendants will have 90 days to respond to the SEC’s complaint, which may include filing for a dismissal.

The SEC’s charges, which date back to November 2024, allege that the Adanis orchestrated a massive scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian government officials. These payments were allegedly intended to benefit Adani Green Energy by securing lucrative solar power contracts. Additionally, the SEC claims the duo misled U.S. investors during a 2021 debt offering.

The civil suit has been consolidated with a parallel criminal indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice, with the SEC seeking severe penalties, including permanent injunctions and “officer-and-director bars” that would prohibit the Adanis from leading any public company with U.S.-traded securities.

This legal breakthrough follows nearly a year of procedural stalemate and failed cooperation from Indian authorities. Prior to this agreement, the SEC had reported significant difficulty serving the defendants in India, noting “no concrete progress” through the Ministry of Law and Justice (MOLJ) despite attempts beginning in February 2025.

The SEC even moved to bypass diplomatic channels in late January 2026, requesting permission to serve papers via email due to “hyper-technical” objections from Indian officials. These delays sparked international concerns regarding potential political influence, given Gautam Adani’s reputation as a close partner of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The U.S. legal scrutiny is part of a broader “Modani” corruption scandal involving allegations of a “tightening corporate-state nexus” in India. Investigative reports previously detailed a covert $3.9 billion LIC bailout plan allegedly engineered by the Modi government in May 2025 to prop up the debt-laden Adani Group. This strategy reportedly involved the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) financing the entirety of a $585 million bond issue for Adani Ports to “signal confidence” to other investors.

While the Adani Group has dismissed these allegations as “baseless” and a conspiracy, critics argue that such maneuvers expose the savings of millions of low-income Indians to significant financial risk. Furthermore, reports suggest a systemic institutional failure in India, where courts and law-enforcement agencies are described as being unable to honestly investigate the Modi-Adani collusion. With the SEC now moving forward in U.S. courts, the case continues to test the limits of international legal cooperation and corporate accountability.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.