UK Court makes way for extradition of fugitive diamond tycoon Jatin Mehta in $1 billion bank fraud case-Surat News

Surat : Fugitive diamond tycoon Jatin Mehta is counting days for his extradition to India to face the tax and investigation agencies to recover $1 billion that he allegedly swindled from over a dozen banks in India following the UK court rejected his request to halt legal proceedings initiated by liquidation firm Grant Thornton that’s backed by Standard Chartered Plc and its local Indian unit.

Jatin Mehta and directors from his family siphoned Rs.3098 crores from various nationalized and private banks. Mehta’s diamond factory is located in Surat’s Vastadevadi Road in Katargam and his corporate office is in Mumbai.

Apart from this, the fugitive diamond tycoon took loans and diamonds from Surat and Mumbai diamond industrialists and fled abroad after defrauding them of 6700 crores.  A team of Indian agencies including Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed charges in Mumbai and Ahmedabad courts in this matter and informed Interpol in 2013 to bring back fugitive Jatin Mehta.

Standard Chartered Bank UK and Standard Chartered Bank  India filed a complaint in the British court, on the other hand, the Indian government also demanded the extradition of Jatin Mehta.

Judge Edwin Johnson ruled that Mehta had not proven that “India is clearly or distinctly the more appropriate forum than England for the trial of this case.”

India’s diamond industry, which cuts or polishes about 90% of the world’s supply, includes Mehta, whose $932 million in assets were frozen by a UK court last year, as one of the most high-profile cases of alleged fraud. The Indian banking system is $8 billion in the red due to a string of fraud scandals over the past decade.

Documents filed in court allege that Mehta and his two companies, Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery Ltd. and Forever Precious Diamonds & Jewellery Ltd., intentionally defaulted on loans in 2013, laundered the money, and hid it in shell companies across the globe, all while leaving 15 Indian banks unpaid.

As stated in the verdict, Mehta denies any wrongdoing and there are no findings regarding the allegations of fraud. Mehta has claimed that Standard Chartered and Grant Thornton were unfairly granted the asset freeze order and that he is just as much a victim as the banks.

Mehta’s attorney, Stephen Ross, said that the court’s decision that the UK is an appropriate forum for the case does not preclude a future hearing on the request to quash the case for other reasons.

“The Defendants have pending applications for strike out,” he said.