Scam-hit NRI tycoon stopped from boarding Dubai flight
Indian lending banks have sought travel restrictions on BR Shetty; he alleges $ 6.6 billion scam was committed by employees
BENGALURU:
NRI tycoon BR Shetty, who is at the centre of a mega billion-dollar scam involving the firms he founded, NMC Health and Finablr, was stopped from boarding an Etihad flight to Dubai by the immigration authorities at KIA on Saturday morning.
However, Shetty’s wife Dr Chandrakumari Shetty was allowed to board the flight, which departed at 2.45 am on Saturday.
Shetty owes a whopping $ 250 million to a consortium of Indian banks, including Bank of Baroda. He is also a loan defaulter with other Indian banks, including Federal Bank. While the banks have sought travel restrictions on Shetty, the courts have ordered him and his wife not to sell or encumber their properties.
For his part, the billionaire NRI has asked for a probe by Indian agencies into an alleged fraud to the tune of $ 6.6 billion by employees of his London-based companies.
According to reports, Shetty said he came to India in February to be with his ailing brother, who passed away subsequently. He said his own investigations pointed to employee fraud in his companies and that he intended to file a criminal complaint against the perpetrators after returning to the UAE. He said he had ‘complete faith’ in the UAE justice system.
In October, in a lengthy complaint which had sought a probe by the Indian investigative agencies, Shetty had accused former employees, including brothers Prasanth and Promoth Manghat who were former CEOs of NMC and Finablr, of perpetrating “a large, complex and sophisticated corporate and financial fraud”. He has also sought a probe into the alleged fraud with the UAE authorities.
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