News outlets based in the UAE have reported that the healthcare company of embattled NRI billionaire B.R. Shetty paid millions of dirhams (1 dirham=Rs 20.56) to unsuccessful business ventures of his family members prior to its collapse this year.
Shetty and his company, NMC Health, have been under the scanner since December when a US-based investment firm alleged the company had inflated cash balances and understated its debts.
Shetty had stepped down as co-chairman of NMC Health in February after the company's shares tanked over 70 per cent. NMC Health is thought to have undisclosed debt of $6.6 billion. NMC Health was the largest private healthcare provider in the UAE, employing around 20,000 people, including 2,000 doctors.
On Wednesday, Dubai-based Khaleej Times reported, "Around Dh2 million, and still counting, were paid through bank transfers to BR Shetty's daughters' failed multiple F&B [food and beverages], jewellery and flower arrangement ventures due to financial problems."
Shetty has three daughters and one son. His son and wife are working with concerns founded by him.
Khaleej Times quoted sources as saying the revelations are " fundamental to how NMC supported every venture of the family. It might be just the tip of an iceberg as the family members invested in over half a dozen businesses, which either failed or didn't take off at all. And most of these alleged frauds were committed or had an inception prior to 2017 when Dr Shetty was the CEO".
On Tuesday, Abu Dhabi-based media outlet The National reported that NMC Health had made two payments of dirham 1 million each in 2015 to the holding company of Just Falafel, a restaurant chain started by Shetty's daughter Reema and her husband, Mohamad Bitar.
"The first of the payments was requested in July 2015, four months after Just Falafel closed its four outlets in London after an ambitious global expansion of the fast-food franchise crumbled amid financial problems," The National added.
The National claimed that the first transfer of dirham 1 million to Just Falafel in July 2015 had been described as an "internal transfer" within the NMC Group. "But accounts for the year ending December 2015, for the London-listed healthcare group did not include Just Falafel as a subsidiary, nor does it appear among the hospitality interests of BRS Ventures, Dr Shetty’s UAE-based holding company," The National claimed.
The allegations of bank transfers to companies associated with his daughters is likely to cast doubts on claims by Shetty that the wrongdoings at NMC Health were acts of a small group of former and current NMC Health employees, who acted without his knowledge.
NMC Health was placed into administration by the UK High Court, which noted, “something had gone very wrong with the management and oversight” of the company.
