Kathmandu: Netflix has released a four-episode documentary series ‘Bad Boy Billionaires India’. Of which three episodes have been released so far while the remaining one episode is being prepared for release. A video has been made about four Indian billionaires who swindled tens of billions of rupees. A series of exploratory material has been prepared on how they cheated and what they are doing now.
The first episode is about Vijay Mallya known as ‘The King of Good Times’ and the second episode is about diamond trader Nirav Modi. The third episode, titled ‘The World’s Biggest Family’, is about Subrata Roy, the owner of the Sahara family. Ramalingam, which is yet to be released, is about Raju.
Vijay Mallya is accused of defaulting on a loan of Rs 90 billion from various banks in India. He fled India to London in 2016 and was arrested by the police there. Mallya, who is currently suing in court, has been released on bail.
Although the Indian government has been trying to bring Mallya to India, it has not been able to do so. The once famous billionaire businessman Mallya was famous for Kingfisher Beer and Kingfair Airlines. Besides, he was in the news all the time because of the expensive party and models. It would be a matter of pride for any model to have her photo printed on her annual calendar. Mallya had entered the business at the age of 28 due to her glamor.
He left India for London after failing to repay a loan of Rs 90 billion from various banks for various companies. Currently, the Indian government has confiscated assets worth Rs 120 billion in India.
Similarly, the second episode is about Nirav Modi. He has been accused of taking a loan of Rs 110 billion and running away without repaying it. Modi initially sold polished diamonds in the US and other markets. But later he decided to buy two companies in the United States. He also bought the first company for Rs 1.60 billion and the second company for Rs 3.20 billion. Then he started playing in a new field.
He went to the Punjab National Bank and demanded money to buy goods in Hong Kong. He had asked for money to buy goods worth Rs 2.8 billion. At the time, he could not give the money to the bank officials but demanded a letter. After the bank official said that it is not possible to give a letter without taking money, Modi could not give money before but after saying that he needed the letter as before, he started looking for the previous record. Due to which Modi’s fraud was exposed.
Modi had already started the scam along with two employees of Punjab National Bank. Modi had fled to London before the fraud was exposed. He was then arrested in London.
Similarly, the third episode is about Sahara Group owner Subrot Roy. It is also known as the largest family. It was also known as Sahara of 1.2 million families. Roy was accused of swindling public money. Sahara applied to SEBI in 2009 for an IPO. SEBI permission was required before going for IPO. A company called Sahara Prime City had applied to bring an IPO in SEBI.
A study conducted before granting permission for an IPO at the time found that money had been misappropriated from the public. The company studied also received a complaint against Sahara. The study found that AIRECL and SHICL had taken Rs 240 billion from 2 to 25 million people over a two-year period.
As soon as the disturbances became public, Sahara stopped issuing OFCDs. Sahar also ordered people to get their money back with 15 percent interest rate. Sahara did not approve of the order. The company filed a case in the Allahabad High Court. But four months later, the court rejected the company’s demand.
After the verdict, Sahara Company reached the Supreme Court. The same order was repeated there. Roy was arrested in 2014 and has been out on parole since 2016. The investor’s money has not been returned yet.
Roy is a resident of Bihar. He started the business with 2,000 rupees. He started a scheme to save people money. But he returned the money immediately after the ban was imposed in 1979-80. Then he started a housing finance company. For which there was no limit to withdraw money from the market. He succeeded in this work. Sahara Company was seen as the largest company in the country. In 2013, Time magazine mentioned that Sahara was the second largest employer in India after the railways.
The company also sponsored the Indian cricket team. The company’s investments in business finance, infrastructure and housing, media and entertainment, consumer retail ventures, manufacturing and IT were spread. The company also bought a hotel in New York, USA for Rs 440 billion. The company owns 764 acres of land in different parts of the country.
The story of Raju Ramalingam’s scam, which is yet to be released on Netflix, is similar. He committed a scam of Rs 70 billion and later added up the amount of fraud to Rs 140 billion.
Raju, who won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Award in 2007 and the Golden Peacock Award for Entrepreneur and Young Entrepreneur and Corporate Governance in 2008, resigned as chairman of the company in 2009 after the Satyam scandal.
Raju had even admitted to the scam. He is lodged in Chanchalguda Central Jail. He was initially held as a general prisoner but was later remanded as a special prisoner by a court order.
Born in Hyderabad in 1954, his father founded a company called Satyam. Raju graduated in 1975 with a degree in Commerce. He also did MBA from USA. After returning from the United States, he started working in the real estate sector under the name of Satyam Company. He later established his identity as an IT enterprise. Founded in 1992, the company soon gained a good reputation in the Indian market as an IT company.