London Court rules in favour of Barclays

London Court rules in favour of Barclays

It directed the founder of NMC Health to pay $131 million to the multinational universal bank

A London court has directed Indian entrepreneur, Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, founder and chairman of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Exchange Centre (EC), to pay $131 million to the multinational universal bank, Barclays.

The penalty has been imposed due to Shetty's company's failure to meet a transaction with Barclays. Shetty had entered into a foreign exchange business with Barclays in 2015.

(He is also the founder of NMC Health, one of the largest privately-owned healthcare groups in the UAE. It had over 200 healthcare units in 17 countries before being placed into administration in 2020).

Barclays had provided UAE EC more than $129 million in less than a week, but never received the expected currencies in exchange as share trading in its parent company, Fibablr. The latter was, thus, suspended on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on account of a massive accounting scandal.

Shetty had signed as a guarantee to pay off his debts to Barclays incurred by the UAE EC.

In 2020, a Dubai court had ordered Shetty to pay an amount of $129,807,261.93, along with interest, to Barclays. It ruled that the freezing order would continue in force. In 2021, the court amended its freezing order. Subsequently, the bank moved the High Court of London to enforce the ruling and tap Shetty's frozen assets across the world.

Barclays has obtained a worldwide freezing order against Shetty, including India, where he is currently stranded.

Shetty's only known English asset is a £4 million penthouse flat in north-west London, close to Lord's Cricket Ground. According to the land registry documents, Shetty through a British Virgin Islands company, Multi Skies Ltd, owns the flat.

Justice Andrew Henshaw of the High Court rejected Shetty's claims that the bank was responsible for the misconduct and had connived with the fraudsters to rip off his company. The judge dismissed the allegations as a "delaying tactic" on Shetty's part.

Earlier, the Dubai court judge had also dismissed his forgery claims as being "entirely without substance." He noted that there was "no evidence" to suggest that Barclays had engaged in any kind of dishonesty or fraud.

Shetty has brought legal action in the United States alleging that some former executives had siphoned off more than $5 billion over the years. He claimed that they forged and signed off transactions without his knowledge, including the agreement with Barclays.

He has also filed a suit in New York against Ernst & Young over its auditing work for NMC Health, seeking a sum of $7 billion. There has been a discovery of over $6.6 billion of debt, three times higher than its last filed accounts.