Indian Billionaire Gautam Adani Seeks Trump’s Help to Quash Bribery Charges While Displacing Indigenous Tribes for Coal

Gautam Adani, the Indian billionaire and chairperson of the Adani Group, is no stranger to controversy. Accused of bribery, fraud, and sanction violations by U.S. federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission during the Biden administration, Adani has been quietly pressing the Trump White House to halt these legal actions. Reports from June 2025 reveal Adani’s attempts to get the Trump administration to drop these serious charges, even as his companies face probes over illegal Iranian petrochemical trades. Reuters recently confirmed Adani’s plans to ask a U.S. judge to dismiss the SEC’s civil fraud case, underscoring his aggressive legal defense strategy.

But Adani’s troubles are not confined to American courts. His coal mining project, Gare Pelma Sector II, in Chhattisgarh, India, threatens the livelihood and sacred lands of the Oraon tribe, who have depended on these forests for generations. Despite the National Green Tribunal’s January 2024 ruling that quashed the environmental clearance for the project and mandated fresh public consultation, the Indian government reissued the clearance in August 2024 without proper tribal consent. Contractors then felled nearly 5,000 trees while police forcibly suppressed tribal protests, blatantly violating India’s Forest Rights Act of 2006.

The Oraon people, whose culture and survival are intertwined with the forest, face displacement and environmental devastation. Their village leader Amrit Lalbhagat describes how his community sources food and materials sustainably from the forest, which is now being destroyed for coal mining. This local struggle reflects a broader pattern of authoritarian cronyism, as Adani enjoys close ties with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose administration has overseen a dramatic rise in Adani’s market value and a consolidation of oligarchic power.

International watchdogs like Reporters Without Borders highlight Adani’s “relentless legal offensive” to silence journalists and critics in India, further entrenching his impunity. Now, with his domestic dominance secure, Adani appears to be cultivating a similar relationship with Trump, who has called Modi one of his “greatest friends.” This alliance raises urgent questions about the global networks of authoritarian oligarchs shielding each other from accountability.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of India’s opposition, recently condemned Modi for prioritizing Adani’s interests over those of indigenous communities and farmers. Gandhi’s call to cancel the U.S.-India trade deal ties the fate of the Oraon tribe directly to geopolitical power plays and corruption scandals, including the shadow of the Epstein files that loom over India’s political elite.

As Adani’s mining projects poison air, water, and soil in Raigarh district, and as he seeks to evade U.S. justice with Trump’s help, the stakes could not be higher. This is not just a local environmental or legal issue — it is a case study in how authoritarian alliances between billionaires and political leaders crush democracy, civil rights, and indigenous sovereignty across continents.

Only Clowns Are Orange will keep tracking how these intertwined abuses of power unfold, holding the powerful accountable on both sides of the globe.