India’s Adani Enterprises has agreed to pay US$275 million to settle alleged US sanctions violations linked to Iranian liquefied petroleum gas, the US Treasury Department announced on Monday (18), as the Trump administration moved to resolve a cluster of cases involving Indian billionaire Gautam Adani.
The Treasury said Adani Enterprises had purchased LPG shipments from a Dubai-based trader that was represented as supplying Omani and Iraqi gas but that had actually originated from Iran, in breach of US sanctions on Iranian energy exports.
In a parallel track, the US Securities and Exchange Commission settled a civil lawsuit against Adani over an alleged scheme to bribe Indian government officials to win approval for a major solar power project, according to court records filed last week. The settlement remains subject to court approval.
The Justice Department is also close to dropping related criminal fraud charges against the Adani chairman, who has promised to invest US$10 billion in the US economy, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The dismissal could come as soon as Monday.
US prosecutors had charged that Adani agreed to pay US$265 million in bribes to Indian officials and that he and alleged co-conspirators raised more than US$3 billion in loans and bonds while concealing the corruption from lenders and investors. The Adani Group has consistently denied wrongdoing.
The settlement carries direct relevance for Sri Lanka, where Adani Ports holds a 51 percent stake in the Colombo West International Terminal (CWIT) at Colombo Port. It is the first major US enforcement action against the Adani Group with a documented commercial footprint in Sri Lanka, where the group’s energy and infrastructure exposure has been politically contested.
Adani, a close ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has an estimated net worth of US$82 billion, according to Forbes.
