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| Dr B.R. Shetty, founded NMC Healthcare in 1974. The company was listed on the FTSE in late 2012, and in 2017 relinquished the CEO position and became non-executive chairman.Image Credit: Gulf News Archive |
Will Dr. B.R. Shetty win it in the US? More specifically, in a New York court of law, where he has sought damages totalling more than $7 billion against his former audit firm, banks, and senior executives of Abu Dhabi headquartered NMC Health, the UAE Exchange Centre and NeoPharma, a pharmaceutical business that he owns.
Informed sources in the UAE who had dealt with Shetty in the past are baffled that he has taken on a legal battle in the US despite being involved in sundry legal issues in the UAE, in the UK courts and in India. His assets are under freeze through various court orders, and he remains stuck in India despite repeatedly announcing that he wants to fly back to the UAE to clear his name.
“It’s interesting that Shetty has sought damages of $7 billion plus – which is more or less the same amount that was siphoned off from NMC’s books while he was holding senior positions in the healthcare group,” said a senior banker closely involved in the rescue act that the hospital operator went through since April 2020 after finding that loans taken from the banks were never reported in the books.
“The financial misdeeds happened in the UAE – involving US courts is more of a diversionary play, that’s how I see it. Fleecing of NMC’s funds/assets between 2012 and end 2019 happened in the UAE and involved parties based in the country. Justice too will need to be served in the UAE.
“It was NMC funds that got diverted, not Shetty’s. if at all anyone has a claim on damages, it is NMC’s lenders and creditors, most notably ADCB.”
Some sources say that getting the matter into a US court is double-edged – US-based pension funds had shareholding in NMC and if Shetty himself gets implicated in any way, it will set off more problems. “Such deeds would be viewed quite adversely in the US – opening legal proceedings in the US courts could be a potential can of worms,” said the banker.
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