A hole of 1.4 billion euros
Gitanjali often needs foreign currencies to finance the importation of precious stones. Rather than soliciting a credit in an Indian rupe which would cost them more, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi want to borrow in the motto of the country where the goods are purchased. The Punjab National Bank (PNB) guarantees them over the years a series of loans contracted with Indian establishments with agencies abroad. “In this situation, the bank is guarantor for her client. She sends a message to her counterpart indicating that she agrees to cover the loan. And she undertakes to reimburse if her client is lacking”explains a banker. Gitanjali would have benefited from the complicity of an PNB framework which would have bypassed the Company’s computer system so that the credit guarantees offered go unnoticed. The PNB would have delivered 367.
The bank ends up discovering everything in January 2018 when Gitanjali requests new bank guarantees. Problem: his accomplice retired in May 2017 and his replacement requires wages. The company betrays itself by explaining that its requests have always been accepted and that it has never had to provide deposits in guarantee. What challenge the new employee who alerts his management. The audit highlights a hole of 1.4 billion euros in loans which would never have been reimbursed. The money supposed to pay imports was in fact diverted, according to the PNB investigation.
Mehul Choksi managed to leave Bombay shortly before the case had fun and takes refuge in Antigua-et-Barbuda, a Caribbean archipelago. Directorate, the Indian agency to combat financial crime, and the CBI, the equivalent of state security, fail to obtain its extradition. Their efforts to arrest him took a incredible turn in 2021. Mehul Choksi went to a villa in the archipelago at the invitation of a friend. When he arrived, he was tied up and then taken by boat to the neighboring island of Dominique. CBI agents sent on the spot then try to repatriate him, to no avail. Mehul Choksi will later claim to have been a victim of the RAW, the Indian espionage agency.
In Antwerp, the diamonds have the blues: “The Belgian state takes us for criminals, the whole luxury industry is leaving”
In Belgium to treat cancer
According to his lawyer, he moved to Belgium in 2024 to undergo cancer treatment. His arrest in Antwerp last weekend could be the prelude to his extradition. In any case, this is what the Indian authorities hope. The SPF Justice said on Monday that it had received a request in this direction. But his advice, Vijay Aggarwal, said he was going to ask for a bail. “He is very sick, he follows treatment for his cancer and there is no risk of flight given his state of health”he said.
“Catastrophic” figures for Belgian diamonds, but why?
Even today, the mystery persists around the funds that have been diverted. What was the billion euros stolen from the PNB? To bail out previous debts? To pay the lifestyle of Mehul Choksi and his loved ones? To finance Indian political parties? So many questions that remain unanswered for the time being.
