Adani resolves OFAC sanctions case with USD 275 million settlement

**Excerpt:** Adani Enterprises has agreed to pay a $275 million civil penalty to the U.S. Treasury's OFAC to settle potential liabilities over the inadvertent import of Iranian LPG through a Dubai-based middleman.

New Delhi/New York: Adani Group on Monday reached a settlement with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in an alleged sanctions violation related matter after it extended “extensive cooperation” with the investigation and “proactively disclosed” findings.

The matter related to apparent violations involving imports of Iranian LPG through Mundra Port in Gujarat.

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Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL), the flagship firm of the conglomerate helmed by billionaire Gautam Adani, “agreed to pay USD 275 million to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of OFAC sanctions on Iran”.

The settlement does not constitute a finding of guilt or wrongdoing and resolves all related liabilities, according to the company’s disclosures.

From November 2023 to June 2025, AEL purchased shipments of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) from a Dubai-based trader purporting to supply Omani and Iraqi gas. While the Dubai supplier represented itself as a reputable middleman supplying LPG primarily from Oman, as well as Iraq, in reality the company served as a conduit for illicit Iranian supply to enter the market.

“None of the parties involved in AEL’s LPG imports were sanctioned at the time of the LPG shipments, and none of the documentation provided to AEL contained any information explicitly pointing to Iranian origin of the LPG,” the OFAC order detailing the settlement said.

However, AEL and Adani Ports & SEZ’s sanctions compliance program did not include other measures to account for risks arising from its dealings.

“Following public reports in June 2025 of allegations that AEL was engaged in the importation of Iranian-origin LPG, AEL immediately suspended all LPG imports and engaged US-based counsel to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the company’s LPG business,” it said.

AEL, the order said, “extensively cooperated with OFAC’s investigation, including by proactively disclosing the findings of its investigation, producing large volumes of documentation, meaningfully answering all the agency’s questions, and promptly resolving its potential liability.”

Additionally, AEL implemented extensive enhancements to its sanctions compliance program that apply across AEL’s corporate group, it added.

This is the second case in the US that has been closed in the last few days. Last week, Adani and his nephew Sagar had agreed to pay USD 18 million to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that they lied to investors by hiding an alleged bribery scheme, when seeking to raise capital for the conglomerate’s renewables unit.

That settlement was part of US authorities nearing a wider resolution with Adani that also involves the Justice Department dismissing criminal fraud charges and the Treasury Department imposing a civil penalty for violating sanctions on Iran.

Under OFAC guidelines, the statutory maximum penalty could have reached about USD 384 million based on the value of the transactions under review. However, the agency reduced the final settlement amount to USD 275 million, citing voluntary self-reporting, proactive engagement, and corrective compliance steps taken by the company.

The case originated after Adani self-reported the issue to OFAC in 2025 following the discovery that a vessel carrying Iranian-origin LPG had docked at Mundra Port. In February 2026, the company disclosed that OFAC had formally sought information regarding transactions dating back to June 2023 to assess whether payments processed through US financial institutions indirectly involved sanctioned Iranian entities.

Adani Enterprises subsequently halted all LPG imports, strengthened sanctions compliance procedures and introduced additional internal controls. OFAC cited those remedial actions, along with compliance commitments made by the company, as key factors behind the reduced settlement.

The OFAC matter was separate from the high-profile investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission involving Gautam Adani and other executives. Together, the resolution of the DOJ, SEC, and OFAC matters is expected to remove a major legal overhang for the Adani Group after months of regulatory and investor scrutiny.

Despite the investigations, the conglomerate continued expanding across infrastructure, logistics and energy businesses. Company filings show the Adani Group’s listed entities reported record EBITDA of about USD 5.3 billion in the first half of FY26, while capital expenditure during the period was estimated at nearly USD 17 billion.