Gautam Adani and nephew Sagar Adani have reportedly made their first court filing in the United States fourteen months after facing civil fraud charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to a report in Hindustan Times, in a letter dated January 23 to a New York federal judge, the Adanis’ legal team, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, indicated they are engaging with the SEC to reach an agreement over the method of delivering legal summons, and have asked the court to delay ruling while talks continue. This follows failed attempts by the SEC to serve documents through Indian government channels, leading to procedural disputes impacting the case.
The SEC filed charges against the Adanis on November 20, 2024, alleging securities fraud in connection with a $750 million bond offering that raised more than $175 million from US investors. The Adani Group described the allegations as “baseless.” The agency initiated a formal request to serve the summons under the Hague Convention on February 17, sending the documents to the Ministry of Law and Justice.
On May 1, the ministry declined to serve the documents, citing the absence of an ink signature on the SEC’s cover letter and an official seal on the standard Hague Convention forms, the report added. In response, the SEC stated that “the Hague Convention requires neither a cover letter (signed or otherwise) nor a seal on the Model Form” and resubmitted the request on May 27. The agency emphasised it “regularly sends such requests to other countries’ central authorities without seals… and these requests are regularly executed without objection.”
By December 14, the SEC received further letters from the ministry, citing different objections to the summons. The letters, dated November 2025 for both Gautam and Sagar Adani were returned too. “The documents have been checked and in view of the Rule 5(b) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s Informal and Other Procedures… it is found that the above mentioned summon does not cover in the above said categories,” the ministry wrote, as per the report.
In a memorandum to US District Judge Nicholas G Garaufis, the SEC rejected the ministry’s reasoning, and added that it “does not expect service to be completed through the Hague Convention”.
Two days before the Adanis’ court filing, the SEC requested the court permit service of the summons by email and via the Adanis’ US lawyers, due to the Indian government’s repeated refusal to deliver the documents through the international treaty process, the report stated. The SEC characterised India’s objections as an improper challenge to the regulator’s authority, the report said.
