The former jewellery mogul appeared in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 20 March, one day after being apprehended at a British bank. He has been refused bail and deemed a flight risk.
Modi – who made his fortune through jewellery design and retail, including his diamond company Firestar International – is facing extradition back to India, where he is wanted on charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to conceal criminal property.
India’s Central Bureau of Investigation raided his properties in February 2018 after the Punjab National Bank alleged Modi and his partners conspired with bank officials to secure US$44 million in advances to pay overseas suppliers.
It was later alleged that the group fraudulently obtained loans of up to $2.8 billion, and that some of the crimes involved Modi’s three American jewellery companies who engaged in ‘round tripping’ – buying and selling loose diamonds in sham transactions with shell corporations in order to create a false cash flow.
After leaving New Delhi, Modi was thought to be living in New York and Hong Kong and visited Switzerland and Cyprus before surfacing in London in January.
UK newspaper The Telegraph recently filmed him walking on the busy thoroughfare of Tottenham Court Road in Soho, where he has been affiliated with a new company listed as a diamond and watch wholesale trader and retailer.
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