Former Indian Billionaire Arrested for $340 Million Siphoning
Former billionaire and Indian healthcare tycoon, Shivinder Singh, was arrested alongside three others over charges of siphoning around $340 million from a lender they controlled.
The arrests by New Dehli police follow accusations that Singh and his associates had absolute control of Religare Enterprises. Its subsidiaries put Religare Finvest in poor financial conditions by «disbursing loans to companies having no financial standing that were controlled by them,» according to «Economic Times», with the amount totaling 24 billion rupees ($338 million).
Amongst those arrested were Sunil Godhwani, former head of the financial services company once helmed by Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh – the elder brother which authorities are still searching for, to further investigations.
Fall from Grace
The Singh brothers were once amongst India’s most prominent business families as heirs to a healthcare empire that included the nation’s top drug manufacturer Ranbaxy Laboratories and second-largest hospital chain Fortis Healthcare. But in recent years, their fall from grace has been hard and fast.
Last year, a tribunal in Singapore ordered the Singh brothers to pay around $500 million to Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo for concealing information during a $4.6 billion share sales in 2008. In the last two years, India’s financial regulator has also alleged that the Singh brothers had defrauded Fortis Healthcare through the diversion of funds and suspect accounting.
