Trouble Mounts For UAE Exchange Founder BR Shetty As Banks In Middle East Freeze His Accounts
Things are going from bad to worse for Indian origin middle-eastern businessman BR Shetty after UAE ordered to freeze all his bank accounts and his family and has also blacklisted several firms associated with him.
The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) issued the advisory following a complaint filed by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, alleging "fraud and forgery" against six people, including Shetty.?
¡°Our businesses operate in areas such as food security and supply, pharmaceutical manufacturing, medical waste management and industrial catering services, and are therefore vital cogs in the economy,¡± a spokesman for Shetty and his holding company BRS Ventures told Reuters.
¡°Any such orders would put these businesses, their employees and their ability to operate and meet ongoing supply at serious risk, and especially at such a critical time given the current public health issue,¡± the spokesman added.?
Earlier, a UK court had placed Shetty's firm NMC Health, one of the largest healthcare providers in the middle east under administration following an application by the ADCB which alone has a debt of $981 million from the company.The total debt of Shetty's firms in UAE alone is said to be around $ 2.18 bn. This is excluding the amount he owes to banks in Oman.?
According to Reuters, in recent months, NMC has revised its debt position to $6.6 billion, well above earlier estimates of $2.1 billion in June last year, after doubts emerged over the size of Shetty¡¯s stake and those of other shareholders.?
Finablr, in which Shetty has a controlling stake, said last month it was preparing for potential insolvency, while operations of its UAE unit were seized by the central bank.Shetty resigned as NMC¡¯s non-executive chairman and as a board member in February and has said he is conducting his own investigations.?
Born in Udupi in coastal Karnataka, Shetty migrated to the middle east in the 1970s where he began his career as a pharmaceutical salesman.Shetty founded NMC Health in 1974 as the New Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi and expanded to a full-fledged hospital in 1981, which later on went to become the largest private health care, provider in UAE.Shetty's other business includes UAE Exchange, a company dealing with foreign exchange and other financial services.?
He was included on the Forbes list of India's 100 Richest People in 2015 and was listed as the 42nd richest person in 2020.According to reports, Shetty and former CEO of NMC Heath Prasnath Manghat are missing from UAE.Shetty had traveled to India in February to meet his ailing brother, who subsequently passed away and is believed to be still in the country.
