After Delegating Summons Request For Gautam, Sagar Adani, India Provided No Further Update: SEC

New Delhi: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has informed a federal court in New York that it has not received any further response from the Indian government regarding the serving of summons to billionaire tycoons Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani after New Delhi had forwarded the request to a local court.

In a letter to Judge James R. Cho of the US district court for the eastern district of New York, the SEC said it was still working to formally serve the legal documents to the two Adanis in connection with a securities fraud lawsuit filed five months ago.

The letter, seen by The Wire and signed by SEC counsel Christopher M. Colorado, also stated that the agency had recently identified the legal counsel for Gautam Adani and sent him a notice of lawsuit and request for waiver of service of summons.

A similar notice had earlier been sent to counsel for Sagar Adani.

In November last year, the US justice department accused Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, former Adani Green Energy CEO Vneet Jaain, two former executives of Indian renewables firm Azure Power, and three former officials of Canadian pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) of orchestrating over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials between 2020 and 2024 to secure lucrative solar energy contracts.

In a parallel action, the SEC filed a civil suit against the two Adanis for allegedly violating various anti-fraud provisions of federal securities laws.

Cyril Cabanes, the CDPQ’s former Asia Pacific infra head and past member of the board of directors of Azure Power, was also sued by the SEC for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Two days after the two indictments were unsealed, the federal court in New York issued summons for the two Adanis in the SEC case on November 22.

The SEC first gave an update to the court on February 18 that it had sought assistance from the Indian government under a multilateral treaty to deliver the summons.

In the latest update filed on April 25, the US body said that the Indian Ministry of Law and Justice had “confirmed” that “it received the SEC’s request for assistance under the Hague Service Convention and that it has, in turn, requested that the relevant judicial authorities within India attempt to serve the summons and complaint on defendants”.

This means the Indian authorities have acknowledged that they received the SEC’s request and passed it on to the appropriate local courts in India to serve the papers.

The Hindu reported in March that the law ministry, in response to a Right to Information query, said the summons had been sent to a sessions court in Gujarat for delivery at Gautam Adani’s Ahmedabad address.

However, when the SEC asked for further updates from the law ministry on the summons, there was no response.

“In advance of this status report, the SEC sought additional updates from the [Indian law ministry] concerning service but has not received a response,” wrote the SEC counsel.

The SEC also sent direct notices and waiver requests to both Gautam and Sagar Adani – and more recently, after it “learned the identity” of the counsel representing Gautam Adani.

However, “to date, neither defendant has agreed to waive service of the summons and complaint,” SEC informed the court.

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