Billionaire Gautam Adani have moved a US court seeking dismissal of a US Securities and Exchange Commission’s securities fraud lawsuit, arguing the case represents an impermissible extraterritorial application of US law and fails for lack of personal jurisdiction.
The SEC had sued Adani Group founder and his nephew, Sagar, in November 2024, alleging they misled investors by failing to disclose an alleged bribery scheme tied to Indian state officials, framing the case under US securities laws.
Denying all allegations, the two through their lawyers filed a pre-motion letter ahead of a planned April 30 motion to dismiss in the Eastern District Court of New York.
In the plea, they said the SEC’s claims over a 2021 bond sale by the group’s renewable energy arm, Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) are legally flawed on multiple grounds.
The Adanis argued that the court lacked personal jurisdiction, saying neither of them had sufficient contacts with the US or direct involvement in the bond offering.
The $750-million bond sale was conducted outside the US under Rule 144A and Regulation S exemptions, with securities sold to non-US underwriters and only later resold in part to qualified institutional buyers, they said.
The plea stated that “in September 2021, Adani Green, which is not a US registrant, conducted a $750 million bond offering pursuant to SEC Rule 144A and SEC Regulation S, which are registration exemptions for private resales to qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) and for non-US sales, respectively”.
“Adani Green sold all of the notes from the Offering outside the US, via a subscription agreement, to non-US underwriters, who later resold the Notes to QIBs. A fraction of those resales — in transactions to which Adani Green was not a party — are alleged to have been made to ‘investors in the US’,” it said.
The plea through the lawyers added that the complaint does not allege that Gautam Adani approved the issuance, attended key meetings, or directed any activity at US investors.
Stating that the SEC could not charge the two under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it instead recast its charges as a securities fraud case. PTI
