India’s most-wanted man defrauded £1.5 billion from a national bank by using insiders and threatening to kill witnesses in an international Ponzi scheme, a court was told.
He was discovered last year living in a penthouse flat in the Centre Point tower in central London, occupying half a floor at a cost thought to be about £17,000 a month.
He was operating a new diamond business in the capital despite having had his bank accounts frozen by the Indian authorities and an Interpol red notice issued for his arrest.
He was detained at HMP Wandsworth, where he has been for the past 14 months as he fights extradition to India.
Mr Modi owns Firestar Diamond, a jewellery brand, and was worth $1.73 billion in 2017, according to Forbes.
He appeared via video link at Westminster magistrates’ court Monday for the first of five days hearings that will decide whether he is to be extradited. He wore a white shirt and black suit.
Helen Malcolm, QC, for the Indian government, said that the fraud had been orchestrated by fiddling MOUs (memorandums of understanding), for loans used by businesses to import foreign goods at a cheaper rate.
