Rags to riches makes for inspirational stories, unfortunately riches to rags is what makes for a viral story. Interestingly, India has plenty of both. One of those joining the list happens to be UAE-based Indian billionaire BR Shetty's company Finablr Plc, which is getting ready to sell its business to an Israeli-UAE consortium for a shocking $1. It was only last December the company was valued at $2 billion (Rs 14,700 crore). The company reported more than $1 billion in undisclosed debts in April.
Finablr, the platform for payments and foreign exchange solutions, announced that it has entered into a "definitive agreement" with Global Fintech Investments Holding (GFIH) to sell the entire issued share capital of Finablr Limited. It must be noted that GFIH is an affiliate of the Prism Group of Israel, which is linked to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The deal also happens to be one of the major step further among significant commercial transactions between UAE and Israeli companies after the countries signed a normalisation accord this year.
Billionaire to bankrupt ---the backstory
The fact that Indian immigrant to the UAE, Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty once upon a time had a private jet, vintage cars, two floors of the obscenely expensive Burj Khalifa, guest list that comprised politicians, Bill Gates and Bollywood A-listers, should sum up his billionaire status.
Founder of NMC Health (once the biggest private healthcare company in the United Arab Emirates) had everything going for him. He'd make statements about his love for fast cars, penchant for solving problems and living life the way he's always envisioned. Till one Muddy Waters comes along. A controversial research firm known for exposing accounting frauds in Chinese companies, among others.
Last December, Muddy Waters released a report on NMC Health accusing the company of falsifying accounts, by understating its debt by $4.5 billion in 2019. As for the financial services firm Finablr, also listed on LSE, it was found out that cheques worth $100 million were issued from the company without the board's knowledge. The entire house of cards had come crumbling down, after one thing led to another. Shetty has claimed throughout his downfall that he himself is the victim, by alleging fraud and misappropriation within NMC.
