India sold the assets of Vijay Malia, who was once known for his enviable lifestyle, with sports cars, luxury homes, and a cricket team to pay off his outstanding debts. However, he still hopes for the ex-billionaire’s extradition.
Indian tycoon Vijay Malia’s longstanding saga with state banks over unpaid loans could finally end.
Its now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines had amassed about $1.3 billion in debt, most of which was settled Wednesday when the Directorate of Enforcement, the state-owned financial fraud investigator, sold Mallya’s stake in United Breweries $784 million a consortium of banks from the State Bank of America. India with loans owed to airlines.
The shares – along with Mallya’s other assets – were confiscated after the bank accused him of defrauding them. Wednesday’s payment was the agency’s second and largest payment to the consortium. In 2019, the bank received Rs.13.57 billion (approximately $190 million) from the sale of other shares. The third tranche of shares worth an additional 8 billion rupees (about $107 million) will be sold over the next two days, the ED said.
Malia, who has lived in the UK for five years fighting to extradite him to India, has so far been unusually silent about the recent sale. As the lawsuits against her progress through the legal system, Malia has been tweeting her reaction to each new development.
For example, on June 4, he published: “I have been watching TV and repeatedly calling my name a con artist and con artist. No one believes that my wealth is more than a loan on Kingfisher Airline [that] is attached to the ED, and some of my 100% settlement offers? Where is the scam or fraud? “Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman had expressed her approval of the ED payment when she wrote on Twitter: ‘Refugees and white-collar criminals are actively prosecuted; their property linked and fees refunded.”