In a significant move, Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group, and his nephew Sagar Adani have requested a US court to throw out a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against them. They have contended that the case does not fall under US jurisdiction and lacks evidence of any wrongdoing. The defendants are pushing for the complete dismissal of the case and are willing to participate in a pre-motion conference if necessary.
The Adanis have stated in a pre-motion letter that the SEC’s allegations regarding a 2021 bond sale by Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL), the group’s renewable energy arm, are legally flawed on various grounds. They have argued that the court does not have personal jurisdiction as neither of them had significant connections with the US or direct involvement in the bond offering.
According to the filing, the SEC’s case is considered extraterritorial as the securities were not traded in the US, the issuer is Indian, and the alleged misconduct took place solely in India. AGEL conducted a $750 million bond offering in September 2021 under SEC Rule 144A and SEC Regulation S, which exempt registrations for private resales to qualified institutional buyers and non-US sales.
The lawyers representing the Adanis have emphasized that AGEL sold the bonds outside the US through non-US underwriters, who then resold the notes to qualified institutional buyers. They clarified that AGEL was not directly involved in these transactions. The grounds for seeking dismissal also include the SEC’s failure to establish a claim since the defendants are not US-based and their activities do not fall under US jurisdiction.
