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US regulator says India declined twice to serve legal papers under the Hague Convention, prompting it to seek court approval to directly email summons to Gautam and Sagar Adani.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has asked a federal court for permission to personally email summons to billionaire Gautam Adani and his nephew, Sagar Adani, after the US market regulator claimed that India’s Ministry of Law and Justice rejected its request twice in the last 14 months.
“Approximately fourteen months ago, the SEC filed charges against Defendants Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, prominent Indian business leaders, arising from a $750 million bond offering that raised $175 million from US investors,” SEC’s counsel Christopher M. Colorado wrote in a letter, dated 21 January 2026.
“Since then, Defendants have retained three US law firms and issued multiple public statements denying the SEC’s allegations, and their companies have filed regulatory disclosures acknowledging this lawsuit," said the SEC letter.
According to the SEC disclosure, Sagar Adani has hired Hecker Fink LLP, while Gautam Adani has hired both Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP. Hecker Fink confirmed its representation to the SEC on 4 December 2024, while Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Quinn Emanuel informed the SEC about their representation on 28 February 2025.
"Meanwhile, India’s Ministry of Law and Justice has twice refused to effect service on Defendants under the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (“Hague Convention” or “Convention”) in response to the SEC’s requests,” said the SEC letter.
Bribery allegations
On 20 November 2024, US prosecutors claimed that $250 million in bribes were paid to unnamed Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms on solar power contracts awarded to Adani Green Energy Ltd and Azure Power Global Ltd, another New Delhi-headquartered firm. The Federal prosecutors indicted a total of eight individuals for allegedly paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials between 2020 and 2024 to obtain lucrative solar-energy contracts.
According to the indictment, Adani Green Energy Ltd raised $2 billion from American and foreign investors based on false and misleading statements about the firm's anti-corruption and anti-bribery efforts. For this reason, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) opened a criminal investigation, while the SEC is pursuing a civil investigation against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and the then Adani Green Energy chief executive Vineet Jain.
The Adani Group denied the allegations, calling them "baseless" and reaffirming its commitment to maintaining the highest standards of governance and compliance.
English (US) ·