Shetty has contested the results, even though handwriting experts verified that his signature was on the personal guarantees for loans made to his now-defunct healthcare company.
Mumbai: The troubled Indian businessman who built the biggest private hospital network in the United Arab Emirates, Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, expressed his disbelief at a Dubai court’s order to pay ICICI Bank around ₹1,000 crore and promised to appeal the ruling.
Last Monday, the Dubai International Financial Center Court ruled that Shetty must reimburse ICICI Bank $106 million, or roughly ₹920 crore, for his personal guarantees on loans made by his now-defunct business.
“I am certain that the appeal court will reverse this decision, and I will undoubtedly file an appeal against it. In the end, justice will be served and honesty will triumph,” Shetty assured Mint.
Emails requesting comment from ICICI Bank on Friday night were not answered.
Following the default of two of Shetty’s companies, NMC Healthcare and Modular Concepts, on loans for which the 82-year-old purportedly provided his personal guarantee, the Indian private bank filed claims totaling more than $125 million against Shetty.
Between 2012 and 2019, NMC Healthcare signed three loan agreements totaling $105 million with the bank. In June 2019, Modular Concepts signed a $30 million financing facility. Both businesses are currently bankrupt.
According to the ruling dated February 17, which Mint has examined, the Dubai court rejected claims filed for loans to Modular Concepts, however ICICI Bank’s claims for the loans to NMC Healthcare were successful.
Not my signature
Shetty has claimed that his signature on the loan documents was fake and denied offering any personal guarantees. As a result, the trial focused a lot on the expert testimony provided by handwriting specialists.
Shetty denied any connection to Modular Concepts, although he did not contest that ICICI Bank did provide the loans to NMC Healthcare.
“It might be a fake, but it looks like my signature. The signature expert [sic.] might be able to verify. In the ruling, Shetty was cited as saying, “I’m positive that this is a fraud.”
“Yes, it does appear to be my signature, but it’s not.” Either my people, my people, or others did it. “I have no idea who did it,” he replied.
Nonetheless, the court was informed by both the handwriting experts—one from ICICI Bank and one from Shetty’s own legal team—that the document had his signature.
A sharp ascent and decline
Shetty’s ascent and decline have been equally dramatic. Shetty, who had little to show for his Udupi birth, moved to the United Arab Emirates in the 1970s. In India, he developed a cult-like following after building a commercial empire in the Middle East that brought him billions of dollars. He received the Abu Dhabi Award, the UAE’s highest civilian honor, in 2005. NMC Healthcare raised £117 million when it went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2012. He signed The Giving Pledge in 2018, which was initiated by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates to inspire billionaires to donate the majority of their fortune to charitable causes.
But after a 2019 study by American short seller Muddy Waters questioned the company’s financials and referred to its profitability as “too good to be true,” Shetty’s firm began to fall apart.
NMC Healthcare initially caught Muddy Waters’ attention by accident. In August 2019, the short seller posted a mysterious message on Twitter regarding an accounting fraud at an unidentified London-listed company. The creator of the company, Carson Block, told Economic Times Magazine in 2020 that although though the tweet had nothing to do with NMC Healthcare, it caused the company’s stock to plummet, which prompted Muddy Waters to investigate.
As soon as investors and regulators began examining the company’s financials, significant disparities were discovered. In 2020, NMC Healthcare declared bankruptcy in the UK, where it was listed. Shetty traveled to India from the UAE.
