BR Shetty's lies and liability: Dubai court asks businessman to pay Rs 408 crore to SBI after denying signing personal guarantee

A Dubai court has directed former billionaire B.R. Shetty to pay around Rs 408.5 crore ($46 million) to the State Bank of India (SBI) after he lied under oath.

The 83-year-old founder of the collapsed NMC Healthcare empire alleged that he did not sign the personal guarantee for a $50 million loan that was granted to NMC Healthcare in December 2018 and denied ever meeting the SBI's then-UAE CEO Anantha Shenoy who witnessed the signing. He went on to allege that his signature was forged, reported Gulf News.

A Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) court called his claims "an incredible parade of lies" and that the evidence produced by Shetty was "incoherent and nonsensical".

Justice Andrew Moran, in a 70-paragraph judgment, said, "I am bound to find that there is overwhelming witness and documentary evidence before me, which satisfies me that Mr Shetty has come before this Court and lied on oath in his multiple denials that he signed the Personal Guarantee."

The judge directed the embattled businessman to award SBI an amount of $45,997,554.59, including interest to the judgement date and additional interest accruing at 9 per cent per annum until payment.

Lies to evade liability

Earlier, the businessman denied that he knew about the loan. But later, he was forced to admit that he was aware of the transaction after he was confronted with a May 2020 email sent by him.

Photographs and meeting notes also contradicted Shetty's claims. However, he claimed that the officials must have "just come and stood there" while he posed for photos with Shenoy. He even made a bizarre claim that NMC employees once organised a contest to find out who could copy his signature best and that they gave a "prize for the winner".

"It turns out and I so find, that he was fully aware of and had admitted he had signed the Personal Guarantee back in May 2020," the judge wrote, calling Shetty's explanation "false and discreditable manoeuvring to evade liability".

The rise and fall of B.R. Shetty

Shetty, who began his career as a medical representative, moved to Dubai at the age of 31 with just $8 in his pocket. He started by selling medicines from door to door and eventually went on to found the NMC, which was the UAE's first private healthcare provider. He later founded UAE Exchange and NMC Neopharma.

However, in 2019, allegations by a US-based short-seller, Muddy Waters Research, proved to be a turning point in his business journey. Shetty's companies were accused of hiding massive $1 million debt and forging financial documents. With this, the share prices of his companies plunged and he was forced to sell his Rs 12,478 crore business for a meagre sum of Rs 74 to an Israeli-UAE consortium.

Shetty quit NMC Health in 2020 and his accounts were frozen by the UAE government. His firms were also blacklisted, putting an end to his business empire.

Middle East