US bribery case: Adani makes first legal submission, asks court to defer ruling
Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani have requested the US court to defer its ruling on the 21 January SEC motion, as their counsel and the US regulator were discussing a stipulation.
MUMBAI , BENGALURU : Adani Group chairperson Gautam Adani's counsel on 23 January made their first submission in a US court 14 months after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a bribery and securities fraud case against the Indian billionaire and his nephew.
Global law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, writing on behalf of Gautam Adani and with the consent of his nephew Sagar Adani, requested the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York to defer its ruling on a motion made by the SEC on 21 January, as Adani's counsel and the US regulator were discussing a stipulation on the case, showed the submission reviewed by Mint.
A stipulation is a formal agreement between opposing parties during a lawsuit regarding a fact or procedure. It means that both parties agree on a fact or a procedure and do not need to discuss or debate it every time in court.
Adani's counsel did not indicate what was the stipulation being discussed with the SEC.
The case concerns allegations by US regulators in November 2024 that Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, among others, paid bribes to government officials in India to secure favourable power-supply contracts for Adani Green Energy Ltd. The regulators claimed that the Adanis lied about the company’s anti-bribery policies when raising capital from American investors and did not disclose the alleged bribes they had paid, committing securities fraud.
Sullivan & Cromwell and the Adani Group did not immediately respond to Mint's request for a comment.
The SEC case
The SEC has asked the court for permission to personally email summonses and a copy of the complaint to the Adani kin and their advocates, side-stepping the procedure that requires them to serve these summonses via India’s ministry of law and justice.
The US regulator claimed the Indian government twice rejected its request to serve summonses on the Adani kin, citing procedural issues.
American laws require that a summons and a copy of the complaint be delivered in person to the accused to apprise them of the case against them.
The SEC has claimed that since Gautam Adani has publicly commented on the case and both he and Sagar Adani have also hired law firms to represent them, it can be assumed they are aware of the charges against them. Thus, the regulator sought the court’s nod to serve the summonses by email and through their US counsel.
Incidentally, Sullivan & Cromwell was not among the law firms the SEC cited as representing Gautam Adani in its filing on 21 January. According to the SEC disclosure, Sagar Adani has hired Hecker Fink Llp, while Gautam Adani has hired two firms Kirkland & Ellis LlP and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan Llp.
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