Nirav Modi Deposited Black Money In His Employees' Accounts During Demonetisation, Claims Book
For the fugitive diamantaire, the author notes, it was always about more than just the money.
Notwithstanding the marketing hype that surrounded the rise and fall of the fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, he came across as the most complex character who wanted to do the undoable says an explosive new book.
The author, Pavan C. Lall says in the book "Flawed: The Rise And Fall Of India's Diamond Mogul Nirav Modi" that his own interactions with the much controversial businessman revealed a most complex character -- ¡°a creation of multiple cultural settings, the loss of a parent at a young age, and an intense drive to prove a point and make a mark¡±.
Nirav Modi showroom at Kala Ghoda. BCCL
For the fugitive diamantaire, the author notes, it was always about more than just the money.
¡°It was about doing the undoable. It was about him telling the world that he could run with the best and go the distance, no matter what the cost.¡±
The author finds that he even used a fake identity by the name of Edmond Dantes, after the protagonist of literary classic ¡°The Count Of Monte Cristo¡± by Alexander Dumas.
If the fake identity was the prologue, his actions and decisions laid further emphasis of the complex character that the author relates to him.
Even when demonetisation was announced in November 2016, Nirav Modi was allegedly busy collecting old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. He used his employees to deposit as much as Rs 300 crore worth of old notes as their personal savings and later adjusted them in their salaries, claims the book.
ED investigated the Punjab National Bank fraud case by Nirav Modi at World Trade Park (WTP) in Jaipur. FILE PHOTO BCCL
¡°After the note ban, the government allowed citizens to deposit old banknotes in banks as long as they furnished their identification. Those account holders with, say, a million rupees in their account wouldn¡¯t draw too much attention from the tax man if they deposited just two or three lakhs, but a deposit of, say, another million rupees that had never been made before would raise a red flag...
¡°In that context, it was far easier for an enterprise aiming to clean up unaccounted cash to distribute, say, a million rupees among 20 employees who would claim that the money was their personal savings. The result was a win-win for all concerned: the merchant, the employee and the person to whom the money belonged,¡± adds the author.
The book contends that Nirav Modi, who is accused of defrauding the state-run Punjab National Bank of over Rs 14,000 crore in his attempt to build a global luxury brand, has done incalculable harm to India's diamond elite.
