Former IFIN Top Brass Received Hefty Pay, Perks And Enjoyed The High Life Even As They Bled The Company Systematically

The former top management of IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) continued to draw hefty salaries and commissions between the financial years 2014 and 2018 when the company came under increasing financial stress, according to a Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) investigation report.

Former IL&FS chairman Ravi Parthasarathy drew an annual salary of Rs 14.2 crore as on March 2018. The same year in June, IL&FS first defaulted on inter-corporate deposits and commercial papers, but Parthasarathy still received performance-related pay which stood at Rs 6.24 crore.

SFIO found emails exchanged between the group’s former management and borrowers, which prove that IFIN’s officials enjoyed additional perks.

Emails have been found which suggest that in 2014, S Sivasankaran of the Siva Group, one of the beneficiaries of IFIN’s circuitous transaction arrangements, arranged for helicopter tour, ski resort stays in Norway for Ravi Parthasarathy.

Other emails suggest that Viren Ahuja of Flamingo Group, another borrower, arranged for an internship at Moet Hennessy for Akansha Bawa, the daughter of former top IL&FS official Ramesh Bawa.

Top IL&FS brass Ramesh Bawa, K Ramachand, Arun K Saha, Vaibhav Kapoor and Hari Sankaran were also among the top paid, the probe found.

IFIN also continued to pay large commissions to them, despite its precarious financial condition. Parthasarathy earned a commission of Rs 43 lakh in March 2018 and a “sitting fee” of Rs 2 lakh for FY18. Sankaran, Saha and Kapoor were also paid a commission of Rs 10 lakh each in March 2018, while their “sitting fees” for FY18 ranged from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

IL&FS was supposed to evaluate the performance of its board of directors, but it failed to do so. Instead, the investigation found that the pay component was decided by the board, rather than any committee.