Gautam Adani, nephew make first court filing in US in 14 months after fraud charges: Report

Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani have reportedly filed their first court case in the US fourteen months after facing civil fraud charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

According to a report by Hindustan Times, in a January 23 letter to a federal judge in New York, Adanis’ legal team, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, indicated that they were reaching out to the SEC to reach an agreement on how to deliver the legal summons, and asked the court to postpone ruling while talks continued. This comes in the wake of failed attempts by the SEC to submit documents through Indian government channels, which led to procedural disputes that affected the case.

The SEC filed charges against Adanis on November 20, 2024, alleging securities fraud in connection with a $750 million bond offering that raised more than $175 million from U.S. investors. The Adani Group described the allegations as “baseless”. The agency filed a formal request for notification of the summons under the Hague Convention on February 17, and sent the documents to the Ministry of law and Justice.

The report added that on May 1, the department refused to hand over the documents, citing the absence of an ink signature on the SEC cover letter and an official seal on the standard forms of the Hague Convention. In response, the SEC stated that “the Hague Convention requires neither a cover letter (signed or otherwise) nor a stamp on the model form” and resubmitted the application on May 27. The agency confirmed that it “regularly sends such requests to central authorities in other countries without seals… and these requests are regularly implemented without objection.”

By December 14, the SEC had received further letters from the department, indicating various objections to the subpoena. Letters dated November 2025 to Gautam and Sagar Adani were also returned. “The documents were examined and in light of Rule 5(b) of the SEC’s Informal and Other Proceedings…it was found that the above subpoena does not include the above categories,” the department wrote, according to the report.

In a filing to U.S. District Judge Nicholas J. Garaufis, the SEC rejected the department’s reasoning, adding that it “does not expect to complete service through the Hague Convention.”

The report said that two days before Adanis filed with the court, the SEC asked the court for permission to send the subpoena via email and through Adanis’ US lawyers, due to the Indian government’s repeated refusal to hand over documents through the international treaty process. The SEC described India’s objections as an inappropriate challenge to the regulator’s authority, the report said.