NMC funds allegedly used for Shetty luxury assets, court hears

• BR Shetty gives evidence
• Allegations concern jet and apartment
• ‘Nobody can be trusted’, says founder

Funds from the now-collapsed Abu Dhabi-based NMC Health were allegedly used to acquire a private jet for founder BR Shetty, fit out his Burj Khalifa apartment and facilitate corporate acquisitions, a court heard last week.

Shetty, the defendant in a $5.4 billion fraud case brought by the company’s administrator, gave evidence at the ADGM Courts in Abu Dhabi Global Market. Shetty denies the allegations.

Administrator Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) alleges that Shetty and former chief executive Prasanth Manghat committed fraud against NMC, and that Bank of Baroda knowingly facilitated the activity.

The case began last month and is being heard remotely because of the Iran conflict. 

Questioned by A&M’s barrister last week, Shetty said he passed responsibility for much of the decision making and financial management of NMC to senior leaders and fell victim to a complex fraud that brought down the business in 2020.

“Delegate or stagnate, that was my principle,” he told the court. It was “practically impossible” to read and review all company paperwork presented to him while he headed up NMC and he did not fully understand the accounting ledgers, he added. 

“You had to take it for granted, the faith was there,” he said. “Now I know that nobody can be trusted.”  

Shetty denied involvement in the running of a complex web of “sham” companies A&M alleges were set up to facilitate the businessman’s $1 billion acquisition of foreign exchange house Travelex in 2014, the court heard. 

The acquisition was made by Shetty and equity partners associated with UAE-based Centurion Investments. But A&M alleges that NMC funds were siphoned off and redirected to Shetty to facilitate the deal.  

Shetty was also questioned about alleged use of NMC money for fit-out and maintenance of his private property portfolio, including his apartment in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, and a AED15 million ($4.1 million) investment in an Oman cement project.

He told the court he did not consider it unusual that Manghat allegedly arranged for NMC funds to be used to purchase Shetty’s $7.5 million private jet. When told NMC’s funding position was “tight”, Manghat proposed using funds from another of Shetty’s companies, UAE Exchange, instead. “Sure,” Shetty replied in an email, the court heard.

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At its peak in 2018, NMC was valued at £8.6 billion ($10.8 billion) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), with operations across 19 countries. It was the UAE’s largest private healthcare company and the first Abu Dhabi company to list on the LSE in 2012. 

A spokesperson for Shetty said: “Dr Shetty denies the allegations and has cooperated throughout. Dr Shetty was a victim of a sophisticated fraud.

“He returned to the UAE voluntarily in 2024 to further his cooperation. The matters are before ADGM Courts and it would be inappropriate to comment further while proceedings are ongoing.”

Manghat, who is scheduled to give evidence in court this week, has denied any wrongdoing and Bank of Baroda, in court the following week, has previously declined to comment. The trial is scheduled to run until June.