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Informist, Monday, May 18, 2026

 

--Adani Enterprises reaches settlement with US treasury dept for $275 mln 

 

NEW DELHI – Adani Enterprises Ltd. has agreed to pay the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control $275 million to settle a potential civil liability for apparent violations of Washington's sanctions on Iranian energy, the latter said in a release Monday. The issue pertains to the Indian conglomerate's purchase of Iranian liquefied petroleum gas between November 2023 and June 2025, which was sold as originating from Oman and Iraq.

 

"Red flags should have put AEL on notice that the LPG actually originated from Iran. During this time period, AEL caused U.S. financial institutions to process 32 U.S. dollar (USD) denominated payments totaling approximately $192,104,044 ($192 million) for the shipments," the enforcement office said.

 

Iranian energy has been under US sanctions since May 2019. The two nations have been at war since Feb. 28. The US has accused Iran of running an illicit nuclear weapons programme, in addition to funding terrorist groups in the region and oppressing its own people.

 

The US Treasury Department believes the Adani Group flagship caused "substantial" harm to the objectives of Washington's sanctions programme. "AEL's actions were in direct contravention of this purpose and provided substantial economic benefit to accrue to the Iranian government," the Office of Foreign Assets Control said.

 

The US agency said Adani Enterprises acted "recklessly" and had reason to know of the apparent violations because multiple red flags pointed to the fact that the LPG had links to Iran. For example, when Adani Enterprises started importing LPG into India, it received warnings from third parties that the gas may be of Iranian origin, the agency said. "On at least four separate occasions between March 2023 and February 2024, AEL learned of third-party concerns that cargos supplied by the Dubai Supplier (Adani Enterprises engaged a company in Dubai to get its gas supplies) may have originated in Iran," it said.

 

In addition, Adani Enterprises allegedly did not conduct additional due diligence that may have revealed that the vessels carrying the LPG cargos routinely engaged in suspicious behaviour such as manipulating location and origin indicators and frequently changing names and flag states.

 

In November 2023, a shipment was identified as being loaded in Oman's Sohar. "Sohar is not a significant source of Omani LPG exports, which originate primarily from Salalah, Oman. Furthermore, facilities for exporting fully-refrigerated LPG did not exist at Sohar at the time," the US agency said.

 

The price at which Adani Enterprises procured the gas was also a red flag, it said, as Iran is the only country in West Asia that offered LPG at significantly discounted rates. "The prices AEL received from the Dubai Supplier were sufficiently below the predominant market rate that, at a minimum, AEL should have exercised a greater degree of scrutiny in confirming the source of its LPG, all the more so given that the LPG was allegedly sourced from jurisdictions neighboring Iran," the US agency said.

 

Despite the aggravating factors, the fact that Adani Enterprises has not received a penalty notice from the department in five years proved to be a mitigating factor. In addition, the agency said, the company provided "substantial cooperation to OFAC, including by conducting a thorough, independent internal investigation on an expedited basis and at substantial cost, responding promptly to OFAC's requests for information, and providing large volumes of data regarding the Apparent Violations."

 

It also noted that Adani Enterprises has implemented "significant" remedial measures in response to the investigation. The terms of settlement include a host of measures that Adani Enterprises has to undertake to satisfy the US agency that the sanctions programme is being complied with.

 

Monday, shares of Adani Enterprises closed at INR 2,689.80 on the National Stock Exchange, down 1% from Friday.  End

 

US$1 = INR 96.34

 

Reported by Anand JC

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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