Bhuvana Iyer, Mumbai Uncensored, 13th January 2022 :
Indian Entrepreneur Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, founder of NMC Health Plc, has been directed to pay $131 million to Barclays Plc in an award passed by a London court.
The penalty has been imposed due to his failure to meet a transaction with Barclays, which his foreign exchange business- UAE Exchange Centre, had entered into with the Bank in 2015.
NMC Health Plc is one of the biggest privately-owned healthcare groups in the UAE, and had over 200 healthcare units in 17 countries before it was placed into administration in April, 2020.
He signed a guarantee to pay off his debts to Barclays incurred by the UAE Exchange Centre.
The UK-based international bank had sought to claw back its losses after the businessman’s Abu Dhabi-based UAE Exchange Centre (UAEEC) reneged on a currency-swap agreement in March 2020 with his empire on the brink of collapse.
Barclays gave UAEEC more than $129 million in less than a week, but never received the expected currencies in exchange as share trading in the parent company, Fibablr, was suspended on the London Stock Exchange on account of a massive accounting scandal, the report said.
A court in Dubai ruled in favour of the bank in April last year, prompting Barclays to go to the High Court in London to enforce the ruling and tap Shetty’s frozen assets around the world. Barclays has obtained worldwide freezing orders against Shetty, including in India, where he is currently stranded.
His only known English asset is a £4 million penthouse flat in north-west London, close to Lord’s Cricket Ground. According to land registry documents, this flat is owned by Shetty through a British Virgin Islands company, Multi Skies Ltd.
The Judge in Dubai had dismissed his forgery claims as being “entirely without substance”, noting that there was “no evidence whatsoever” to suggest that Barclays had engaged in any kind of dishonesty or fraud.
