Winsome diverted $750 million to promoter’s firms abroad: Probe

Thursday, 23 August 2018The Indian Express

Winsome Diamonds, which was declared as a “wilful defaulter” in 2016, has claimed that it did not divert funds and was a victim of non-payment by Obaidah’s firms.

The country’s second largest wilful defaulter, Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery Ltd, diverted at least $750 million to six entities in Hong Kong, Bahamas and UAE, directly or indirectly controlled by its promoter Jatin Mehta, through a web of ‘dummy companies’, sources familiar with the investigation told The Indian Express.

Winsome owes $1.26 billion to a consortium of 15 Indian banks. Investigative agencies have alleged that three UAE-based companies controlled by Mehta and his associate Haytham Salman Abu Ali Obaidah diverted $1.03 billion to over half-a-dozen UK-based dummy companies, which routed these funds to an entity called Docklands Investment Ltd. Some of these UK firms are Bramhall and Lonsdale Ltd, Harrington and Charles Trading Co, Welland Investments Ltd, Carte and Hurt Tools Ltd, and Rose Mountain LLP.

According to the United Kingdom Registrar of Companies data, all these firms, including Docklands Investment, are owned by a Cyprus-based company. Most of these companies were liquidated or dissolved in 2016. Many of them shared directors and addresses with each other and also had cross-holdings.

Credit by- The Indian Express

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