Diplomatic Standoff of Service of Legal Documents.
US regulators have termed such objections as being baseless and contrary effort to their jurisdiction. In one of the filings they had filed to the US District Court, Eastern District of New York, SEC contended that the Hague Convention controls the method by which documents are served, and not the power held by the agency to issue charges. The regulator claimed that India action amounts to blocking the usual channel of getting legal service and this requires a court order to make the Adanis available by other means, like email or by using their US-based legal advisors. This is where much ground has been broken as the two countries are at cross roads in their legal collaboration over corporate responsibility.
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Adani Legal Team Joins the game in New York.
After the unsealing of the frozen summons, attorneys of Gautam and Sagar Adani appeared at the US courts first in the official capacity on January 23, 2026. The law firm headed by the well known Sullivan and Cromwell LLP petitioned the court to stay its decision on the motion by the SEC requesting her to be served by alternative means. The attorneys in a letter to the judge presiding over the case said that they were actively discussing with the SEC to agree on the manner in which the summons would be accepted. The move will mark a change whereby the Adani executives become active participants in the American judicial system; a move that was previously silent.
The disclosure by Sullivan and Cromwell marks the first recognition of Adani defense counsel of the US court filing since the indictment was unsealed towards the end of 2024. The defense, by requesting a stay until January 30 to submit an update to the court, seems to be trying to avoid a case law decision that would enable the regulators to bypass sovereign avenues. According to legal experts, it might be a maneuver to bargain an agreement of service and this may be strategic to control the publicity of the case and to evade a hostile court order that will legitimize the action of the SEC to bypass the Indian government.
Facts about the Underlying Bribery Allegations.
The legal tussle is based on a civil complaint and a corresponding criminal indictment, which was filed in November 2024, and accuses the executives of Adani of a large-scale bribery scheme. The prosecutors of the US claim that the defendants paid about 265 million dollars in bribes to the officials of the Indian government between 2020 and 2024 to grant them contracts to supply solar energy at high bids. Such contracts were to earn more than 2 billion dollars after a span of 20 years. The essence of the US case is that the Adani Group solicited capital contributions among American investors, namely, a bond offering of 750 million dollars in September 2021, and at the same time continued to hide all of these illegal activities.
Based on the indictment, the company promotional materials of the bond offering had false and misleading statements on its anti-corruption policies. The SEC argues that the company was purportedly having a strong compliance program but at the same time, top officials were being involved in a corrupt scheme of bribing state officials. The accusations are conspiracy to break the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and securities fraud. These allegations were always refuted by the Adani Group, which called them groundless and insisted that its executives have not committed any crime.
Market Response and Company Defense.
The news of the Indian government rejecting the summons and the following SEC filing led to the sudden fall of the stocks of the Adani Group in the Indian stock markets. Adani Green Energy, the company at the centre of the allegations, shares dropped almost 14% after the allegations. Other companies of Adani Group, such as Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports also experienced sharp declines as the investors feeling got sour due to the renewed legal uncertainty. The market volatility is an indication of underlying fears among the world investors regarding the risk of governance and the legal liability that might be surrounding the conglomerate.
Adani Green Energy clarified to stock markets in reaction to the market turbulence that it was not a defendant in the US proceedings. It was pointed out that the indictments apply to the individual executives, Gautam and Sagar Adani, and that the corporate entity has not been charged with violating the FCPA by any department in the US. The group argues that it is in conformity with all legislations and regulations in the jurisdictions it operates. The strategy the company seems to be following is keeping the corporate bodies unaffected by the legal hassles of its promoters to secure its credit rating and stability in its operations.
