– Mr Gautam Adani is on the cusp of ending a series of legal threats in the US, paving the way for Asia’s richest person to ramp up investment and capital raising after months battling allegations including fraud and bribery.He and his nephew Sagar agreed to pay a total of US$18 million (S$23 million) to settle Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allegations that they made false and misleading representations about Adani Green Energy, according to a proposed agreement filed in US court on May 14.The SEC alleged in a November 2024 lawsuit that Mr Adani spearheaded an effort to pay or promise hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian officials to win contracts Adani Green needed to develop India’s largest solar power plant project.The Justice Department is also moving to drop fraud charges against Mr Adani in a parallel criminal case, Bloomberg News reported earlier.Most dollar bonds of the Adani Group rose on May 15. Shares of the flagship Adani Enterprises gained as much as 3.3 per cent.A settlement would mark a milestone for the Adani Group, one of India’s most powerful companies whose interests include energy, airports and a data centre business that is part of a US$100 billion digital infrastructure push.It would help the conglomerate return to international capital markets and resume its aggressive expansion strategy, following allegations of market manipulation by short-seller Hindenburg Research in 2023 that Adani has also denied.“This is extremely positive for the group’s investor perception,” said Mr Abhay Agarwal, chief investment officer at Piper Serica Advisors. It could put an end to the hit that the conglomerate took after the Hindenberg allegations, he added. Mr Adani chairs the Adani Group conglomerate while his nephew Sagar is executive director at Adani Green Energy. The conglomerate and its corporate units were not sued by the SEC. The company denied the US allegations at the time.Bloomberg News reported in February 2025 that since the cases were filed, Mr Adani had built a political influence operation in the US that included lawyers from white-shoe law firms and lobbyists. BLOOMBERG