SynopsisAdani Group stocks rose up to 3% after US Department of Justice dropped all criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani, concluding a 19-month legal battle. This development, alongside a $275 million settlement with the US Treasury for sanctions violations, lifts uncertainty over the Adani Group's expansion plans. The group had faced allegations of bribery and fraud linked to solar power contracts.Listen to this article in summarized formatReutersShares of Adani Group companies such as Adani Enterprises, Adani Green, Adani Power, Adani Ports, and Adani Energy, and Adani Total Gas gained up to 3.5% after the US Department of Justice dropped all criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani, bringing the securities and wire fraud case in New York to a close.This development ended a 19-month period that tested the group's ability to raise funds for expansion and led to the loss of contracts.Separately, the conglomerate agreed to settle civil charges with the US Treasury Department for violating sanctions through a $275 million payment without admitting wrongdoing. The defendants in the proceedings were Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, Vneet Jaain, Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal.According to company disclosures, Adani Enterprises agreed to settle its potential civil liability arising from apparent violations of OFAC sanctions against Iran. The company said the settlement does not constitute an admission of guilt or wrongdoing and resolves all related liabilities.In a filing before the court, the US Justice Department sought dismissal of the indictment against the Adanis with prejudice.“The Department of Justice has reviewed this case and has decided, in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants,” the filing said. The court subsequently ordered that the indictment against Adani and others “be dismissed with prejudice”.The decision marks a major reversal in a case that had cast uncertainty over the Adani Group’s international expansion ambitions.The SEC and DOJ cases, filed in late 2024, had alleged that the Adanis were involved in a $265 million bribery scheme linked to Indian officials to secure solar power contracts. Prosecutors also alleged that the arrangement was concealed from US investors and lenders while the group was raising capital.Separately, Adani had earlier agreed to pay an $18 million settlement in a US civil court case connected to corruption allegations involving government authorities. He had been accused of participating in an estimated $250 million scheme to bribe officials in exchange for lucrative solar energy supply contracts.According to a New York Times report last week, Adani appointed a new legal team led by Robert J. Giuffra Jr., one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers and co-chairman of the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.The report added that Adani’s legal representatives met officials in the U.S. Justice Department headquarters last month and proposed that if prosecutors agreed to drop the charges, Adani would commit $10 billion in investments into the U.S. economy and create 15,000 jobs.The report added that Giuffra was also working to settle parallel civil cases brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a separate investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department. Sensex, Nifty today: Catch all the LIVE stock market action here (Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)Read More News on(What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips, Budget 2025, Share Market on Budget 2025 and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .) Subscribe to ET Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today. Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price...moreless(You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)Read More News on(What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips, Budget 2025, Share Market on Budget 2025 and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .) Subscribe to ET Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today. Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price...moreless