Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) has agreed to pay $275 million to the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to settle potential civil liability for apparent violations of US sanctions on Iran, the agency announced on Monday. The settlement relates to AEL's purchase of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) that OFAC says originated from Iran, routed through a Dubai-based intermediary between November 2023 and June 2025.

What the Settlement Covers

According to the OFAC statement, AEL caused US financial institutions to process 32 US dollar-denominated payments totalling approximately $192,104,044 for LPG shipments during the period in question. The Dubai-based trader involved had represented the gas as being of Omani and Iraqi origin, but OFAC found it was in fact sourced from Iran, a country subject to comprehensive US sanctions.

How the Supply Chain Worked

AEL entered the LPG market in June 2023, importing the fuel for sale to customers in India. In July 2023, representatives of the company — including the head of its newly formed LPG unit — met with a Dubai-based trading company that claimed to supply Omani-origin LPG to another Indian entity. By September 2023, the Dubai supplier had indicated it could provide LPG through an affiliated entity. An internal AEL document from that period reportedly described the supplier as offering 'discounted LPG from Middle East' on a spot basis.

OFAC noted that the Dubai supplier operated through multiple affiliated entities and, in reality, functioned as a conduit for illicit Iranian supply entering the market.

Red Flags AEL Reportedly Missed

OFAC's statement highlights that AEL was alerted to concerns about the true origin of the cargo on at least four separate occasions between March 2023 and February 2024. Third parties had flagged that shipments supplied by the Dubai trader may have originated in Iran. The agency said these red flags should have put AEL on notice.

At the time, AEL relied on a 2020 sanctions compliance programme belonging to its affiliate APSEZ, which prohibited Iranian-origin cargo and sanctioned vessels from entering APSEZ-controlled ports. The company also conducted standard Know Your Customer (KYC) checks on the Dubai supplier, which returned no hits against OFAC's List of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) and Blocked Persons. OFAC, however, determined that these measures were insufficient given the warning signs present.

Significance and What Comes Next

The $275 million settlement is one of the larger OFAC civil penalty resolutions involving an Indian conglomerate and underscores the extraterritorial reach of US sanctions enforcement. The case illustrates the compliance risks facing Indian companies that source commodities through opaque Middle Eastern trading chains, particularly where dollar-denominated payments route through US financial institutions.

This comes amid broader international scrutiny of Iranian oil and gas exports, which Washington has sought to curtail through its 'maximum pressure' policy. For Adani Enterprises, the resolution closes the civil liability question with OFAC, though the company's broader compliance frameworks are likely to face intensified scrutiny going forward.