Jewellery designer Nirav Modi’s fraudulent transactions worth Rs 11,360 crore sent a shock wave throughout the country. Nirav Modi, and the firms he controls, allegedly leveraged the loopholes in the banking system by seeking letters of undertaking (LoU) and raising credit from foreign banks to pay its merchants.
However, this is not the first time that any billionaires have come under the accusation of fraudulent transactions. Here’s a look at other billionaires of the country with a similar track record.
Vijay Mallya: The liquor baron is now facing multiple cases in India, where his companies have defaulted on loans of around Rs 9,000 crore from Indian banks. Back in March 2016, various banks requested the Supreme Court to prevent Mallya from going abroad due to the money he owed them. However, he had left by then. Yet Mallya is residing in London and good times continue to be still rolling for him as a UK court just tripled his weekly allowance. Late last year, he was arrested but later he was given bail. He called the uproar calling for his arrest as ‘usual Indian media buzz.’
Lalit Modi: He revealed ownership details of Kochi IPL team in 2010, and the team was supposed to be a new addition to the series. He received a show-cause notices accusing him of breaching confidentiality and was sacked eventually. However, he fled to England indicating the lingering threats to his family’s safety. In 2011, his passport was revoked and ED also got a blue corner Interpol notice against him alleging that he breached rules related to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) during the time he was the IPL chief. He continues to stay in the UK and challenged the ED’s notice in a London court.
Deepak Talwar: As many as five prosecution complaints have been filed by the Income Tax Department against corporate consultant Deepak Talwar. It was alleged that he received kickbacks worth hundreds of crores of rupees in individual and corporate bank accounts that are controlled by him and his family members in various tax jurisdictions, including tax havens, across the world. I-T officials claim that the investigation shows that illegal favour was given to certain airlines and aviation companies under the supervision of senior officials in during the-then UPA governance. Talwar left India much before the cases could go anywhere. Presently, he is in UAE, where he has been barred from leaving the country.
Sanjay Bhandari: The I-T Department had been conducting an investigation against Bhandari and the offset company in a tax evasion case. The investigation began when they found the confidential papers and copies of documents of the defence ministry during the raids. The documents were purportedly linked to defence purchases and proposals placed before the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC). Alleged copies of minutes of the Contract Negotiation Committee meeting for buying refuellers were also found. Earlier this year, a Delhi court said controversial arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari as a proclaimed offender in an Official Secrets Act case associated to the recovery of confidential documents of the Ministry of Defence from his residence during an IT raid in 2016. He is reported to have fled the country via Nepal.