For 14 months, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has tried to serve summons on Gautam Adani, India's second-richest person, through proper diplomatic channels. For 14 months, India's government has said no.
Now the SEC is done waiting. On January 21, the agency filed a motion with a federal court in New York asking permission to serve the documents via email and through Adani's US-based lawyers. The message is clear: if India won't cooperate through the Hague Convention, the SEC will find another way.
A billion people aren't a statistic - they're a billion stories. This story is about how India's government is shielding its most powerful businessman from American regulators, and what that means for India's reputation as an investment destination.
The blockade
The SEC filed civil charges against Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani in November 2024, alleging they orchestrated a massive bribery scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to Indian government officials. The case centers on a 2021 bond offering by Adani Green Energy that raised approximately $175 million from US investors.
The SEC says the bond prospectus contained misleading statements about the company's anti-corruption compliance programs. In other words: Adani told American investors his company was clean while allegedly paying massive bribes in India.
To pursue the case, the SEC first tried the proper diplomatic route - the Hague Convention on service of legal documents. That meant filing papers with India's Ministry of Law and Justice and waiting for them to serve the summons.
India's response: bureaucratic obstruction.
In April 2025, the Ministry rejected the first request, claiming missing seals and signatures. The SEC corrected the paperwork and refiled. In December 2025, the Ministry raised new objections, citing an SEC internal regulation and claiming - absurdly - that the SEC "appeared to suggest that the SEC lacks authority" under the Hague Convention.
