140/2018
Basseterre, St. Kitts, February 25, 2018 – Indian newspapers are reporting that one of its nationals involved in a financial scam is in Basseterre to seek St. Kitts and Nevis citizenship.
The Government of India on Friday revoked the Indian passport of the disgraced diamond czar moved all assets of Nirav Modi and on Saturday moved to attach all the assets in the Punjab National Bank fraud.
According to newspapers in India, St. Kitts and Nevis has become the perfect place for Nirav Modi to stay as it does not have an extradition treaty with India.
“The disgraced diamond czar Nirav Modi and has family have moved to his new hideout, St. Kitts, located in the eastern Caribbean, according to a report in Mumbai Mirror.
Sources in the diamond trading communities of Mumbai and Surat said that the 48-year-old diamantaire has also bought a villa at St Kitts, which is helping him in acquiring citizenship of the Caribbean island nation.
“He has been planning this for a while now. In fact, he visited St. Kitts along with his family last week,” a source revealed to Mumbai Mirror.
“Now that his passport has been revoked by the MEA, he will set up another diamond trading unit in either Singapore or Hong Kong,” another source said.
“He can do this and continue to evade Indian authorities, because neither of these countries will extradite him, since he will be a St. Kitts citizen soon,” he added.
Modi and others are being investigated by multiple probe agencies after the fraud came to light recently following a complaint by the Punjab National Bank.
The complaint alleged that they cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of Rs 11,400 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.
Nirav along with his wife Ami, brother Neeshal and Mehul Choksi left India in the first week of January before the Punjab National Bank accused them of committing the fraud. They have not returned to India since then.
Nirav Modi’s “planned” exit from India, is similar to one by Winsome Diamond Group promoter Jatin Mehta, who is also considered one of the biggest corporate defaulters.
Jatin Mehta, who is now a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis, owes millions of dollars to 15 banks in India.
Until the PNB declared its fraudulent transactions, the Winsome Diamond Group scam was India’s second largest banking fraud after Kingfisher Airlines.
Photo 1 – Nirav Modi
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