Garaufis said he believed investment pledge did not influence decision
U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis granted the Justice Department’s request to dismiss fraud charges against Gautam Adani, the Indian energy magnate, and his nephew, but used the accompanying opinion to criticize the reasoning the department’s leadership offered for ending the prosecution.
The opinion identified Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter as the department official who presented the case for dismissal and wrote that McCotter “failed to establish facts for many of his reasons for requesting a dismissal.”
Garaufis separately addressed whether Adani’s promise to invest $10 billion in the United States had played any role in the department’s decision to seek the dismissal. The judge said he believed the investment pledge was not a factor in the request.