The banker villains in the ABG Shipyard fraud saga
It would seem Rishi Agarwal is India’s newly minted master fraudster. In making him the fall guy, the lenders to the company are craftily avoiding the spotlight on their role in the fraud.
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Editor's note: Let this be said. Rishi Agarwal may be a crook but he is no Vijay Mallya, the former promoter of United Spirits and self-proclaimed king of good times now fighting extradition to India in the UK courts. Mallya became the poster boy of buccaneering promoters who led a lavish lifestyle at the cost of employees, showing no remorse for defaulting on Rs 9,000 crore of debt. But the little-known Agarwal, promoter of Gujarat-based shipbuilding firm ABG Shipyard, has done one better. He and his associates hit the headlines earlier this week for perpetrating the “biggest banking fraud” the country has seen yet. The Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate have launched an investigation against the company, Agarwal and his associates for defrauding banks to the tune of Rs 22,842 crore. Except, those in banking circles are not surprised. ABG Shipyard has been a defaulter on banks’ books for several years and it was referred for insolvency proceedings a few years ago, which failed, ending in the liquidation of the company’s assets. According to the CBI’s FIR, Agarwal was at …
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