New York: US legal experts said it would be highly unusual for a federal court to reject the Department of Justice’s request to dismiss the criminal case against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, after prosecutors set out detailed legal and policy reasons for seeking to drop the indictment.
Under Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Justice Department must obtain the court’s permission to dismiss an indictment. While judges may seek additional information or hold hearings before ruling, legal experts said there is little modern precedent for compelling prosecutors to continue pursuing a case the executive branch has decided to abandon.
“It would be very unusual if the courts were to do anything more than accept the department’s reasoning and dismiss the case,” Adam Goldberg, Corporate Investigations Partner at Pillsbury, told PTI Videos. “The Department of Justice has provided tremendous amounts of detail not just with respect to a host of reasons why it does not want to prosecute, but reasonable and supported explanations for why it doesn’t want to move forward.”
Experts emphasize that the judiciary’s authority to override the executive branch’s decision to abandon a prosecution is extremely limited. Given the extensive documentation provided by the DOJ—which noted that Indian authorities found no misconduct, US investors suffered no losses, and key evidence was located overseas—legal analysts see no reason for the judge to block the request to drop the case with prejudice.
This federal indictment dismissal runs parallel to Adani resolving his related civil and corporate legal matters in the US. Gautam Adani agreed to an $18 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Adani Enterprises agreed to pay $275 million to the U.S. Treasury regarding separate Iran sanctions compliance violations. [1, 2]
