After SEC Cites India's Resistance, Adanis' Lawyers Tell Court Talks Underway on Summons Service
New Delhi: An attorney for billionaire Gautam Adani has informed a US federal court that they are negotiating with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over how to receive legal summons, just two days after the agency asked the court to authorise service by email following 14 months of Indian government resistance.
In a brief letter filed Friday (January 23) with the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, attorney Robert J. Giuffra Jr of Sullivan & Cromwell informed the court that the defendants and the SEC are negotiating an agreement on how to handle service of the summons.
“Counsel for Defendants and the SEC are discussing a stipulation regarding the SEC's Motion,” Giuffra wrote on behalf of Gautam Adani and with the consent of co-defendant Sagar Adani.
The defendants requested that the court defer ruling on the SEC's motion while they work out the “stipulation”, which is a mutual agreement between parties on how to proceed.
The SEC's January 21 motion detailed how the agency has been attempting to serve Gautam and Sagar Adani since February 2025 through the Hague Convention, an international treaty governing legal service across borders. India's Ministry of Law and Justice is the designated authority under the treaty.
But India has repeatedly blocked the attempts, according to the SEC. First, in April 2025, the ministry rejected the service request claiming the documents lacked required seals and signatures – formalities the SEC says are not required under the Hague Convention and which it has never needed in past successful service requests to India.
When the SEC resubmitted its request with explanations in May 2025, India's ministry went silent for months, ignoring follow-up inquiries.
Then in December 2025, the ministry issued a new objection, citing an internal SEC regulation and suggesting the agency lacked authority to use the Hague Convention for this case, which the US regulatory body termed “baseless”.
The SEC had asked the court for permission to serve the summons through the Adanis' US law firms, as well as via email to their corporate addresses.
“Given the Ministry’s position, and the time elapsed since service was first attempted pursuant to the Hague Convention, the SEC does not expect service to be completed through the Hague Convention,” the agency told the court in its motion.
The SEC filed civil fraud charges against the Adanis on November 20, 2024, alleging they orchestrated a bribery scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to Indian government officials.
The charges relate to a September 2021 bond offering by Adani Green Energy that raised over $175 million from US investors. The SEC alleges the offering materials contained false statements about the company's anti-corruption programmes.
The Adani Group has called the SEC's allegations "baseless" and vowed to pursue all legal remedies.
Federal prosecutors filed parallel criminal charges the same day, including securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and securities fraud.
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