London Court Rules In Favour Of Barclays, Allows It To Claw Back $131 Million From Shetty, The Founder Of NMC

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. 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. 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. 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. He signed a guarantee to pay off his debts to Barclays incurred by the UAE Exchange Centre. A Dubai Court in the case of Barclays Bank PLC v. Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty in 2020 had ordered him to pay an amount of $129,807,261.93 along with interest to Barclays and ordered that the freezing order will continue in force. On April 22, 2021, a Dubai court amended its freezing order. Subsequently, the Bank moved the High Court of 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. Mr. Justice Henshaw of the High Court rejected Shetty's claims that the bank was responsible for misconduct and had connived with fraudsters to rip off his company, dismissing these allegations as a "delaying tactic", and ruled in favour of the Bank. His lawyer stated that he will be appealing against the judgment of the London Court. Shetty has brought legal action in the US alleging that former executives siphoned off more than of $5 billion over a period of years. He claimed that the former managers had forged and signed off transactions without his knowledge, including the agreement with Barclays. 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. Apart from this, he has also filed a suit in New York against Ernst & Young over its auditing work for his NMC Health, seeking a sum of $7 billion. There has been a discovery of more than of $6.6 billion of debt, which is three times higher than the level in its last filed accounts.

London Court Rules In Favour Of Barclays, Allows It To Claw Back $131 Million From Shetty, The Founder Of NMC

Nitya Bakshi

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