The founder and former Chairman of UAE’s NMC healthcare and Finablr, BR Shetty has moved a complaint against former CEOs and officials of the two companies, alleging them of fraud. He claims that Pramod and Prashanth Manghat who were the CEOs had defrauded him by orchestrating a deception over the group companies’ affairs, Khaleej Times reports.
“I am filing the present complaint against a large, complex and sophisticated corporate and financial fraud perpetrated by Prasanth and Promoth Manghat, brothers who were the former CEOs of NMC and Finablr,” Shetty said in a complaint filed with Mangaluru East (Kadri) Police Station in Karnataka. The copies of the complaint was also shared with the Prime Minister and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate.
Shetty moved to India in February when the scandals of financial irregularities and inflated accounts rocked NMC Healthcare and financial service firm Finablr.
While the Manghat brothers topped the list of 10 accused in the complaint, others included Prasanth Shenoy, the former chief financial officer of NMC, Suresh Kumar, former head of treasury, NMC; Sabina Shamsundar Salgaokar (secretary to Prasanth Manghat – NMC; Pradeep Kumar and Rahul Ranjit, of Unimoni and Finablr respectively, and Suresh Kumar Nandiraju of Neopharma. Two Indian banks, Bank of Baroda and Federal Bank, also figure in the list.
The Pandora’s Box was opened when an investment firm, Muddy Waters, issued a report criticizing NMC’s accounts and disclosing a short position in December, 2019. Muddy Waters’ scrutiny then snowballed into a troubling scenario for Shetty that shed light on his complex share arrangements and cast doubts about his net worth.
Shetty has claimed in the complaint that by 2017, he had lost “all visibility” into the affairs of his group companies due to his resignation and “deception” by the Manghat brothers. He has further claimed that he had no access whatsoever to the records of the group companies from 2017 and was receiving “general misleading financial and corporate reports” prepared by Manghat brothers.