US District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis dismissed the criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani on Monday, but his ruling made clear that the decision was based largely on the Justice Department’s determination that the case should no longer be pursued — not on a finding that Adani was innocent of the allegations.

The case stemmed from a 2024 indictment accusing Adani and associates of participating in an alleged scheme to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts, while misleading US investors about the alleged conduct. Adani and the Adani Group have denied wrongdoing.

The Justice Department moved in May to abandon the prosecution. In a filing, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said the government had concluded that the case was primarily foreign, difficult to prove and inconsistent with the department’s current priorities.

Garaufis ultimately accepted the government’s request as it applied to Adani. The judge said it was “conceivable” that the anti-bribery language used in the financial documents was so generic and vague that it could create legal risks for the prosecution.

The judge also determined that Adani’s previously discussed pledge to invest $10 billion in the United States did not factor into the Justice Department’s decision to dismiss the charges. Adani’s lawyers had raised the investment proposal during discussions about resolving the case, prompting Garaufis to question whether there had been any improper quid pro quo.

After examining the issue, the judge accepted the government’s explanation and dismissed the charges against Adani.

However, Garaufis stressed that his decision should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the government’s handling of the case or a ruling on the underlying allegations.

While agreeing to dismiss Adani’s charges, Garaufis sharply criticized the process used by the Justice Department. He said McCotter appeared to have made the decision without input from FBI and SEC agents who investigated the allegations or prosecutors who had brought the case.

“The irregularities in the decision to dismiss the indictment are concerning,” Garaufis wrote. The judge also rejected McCotter’s claim that the Biden-era indictment was essentially a politically motivated “name-and-shame” exercise, saying there was no evidence supporting that assertion.

Garaufis therefore separated two issues: he accepted that the government had sufficient grounds to abandon its prosecution of Adani, while criticizing the unusual way the decision was reached. Adani welcomed the dismissal, saying his “faith in truth, fairness and the rule of law remained unwavering.”

The judge’s ruling means the criminal case against Adani has been dismissed, although Garaufis continued to question the Justice Department’s reasons for seeking dismissal of charges against other defendants.

Nicholas George Garaufis is a senior US district judge serving on the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He was nominated to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and entered judicial service that year.

Garaufis earned a BA from Columbia College in 1969 and a JD from Columbia Law School in 1974. Before becoming a federal judge, he served as chief counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration and held several legal positions in New York, including with the state Attorney General’s Office and the Queens Borough President’s Office.