BR Shetty too the Missing Millions | Al Jazeera World

This is a story of a financial scandal, of fortunes won too lost too political collusion in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that goes right to the heart of Emirati business too politics.

At the centre of it is a self-made Indian billionaire – Dr BR Shetty.

As founder of New Medical Centre Health (NMC), Shetty built relationships with the UAE’s all-powerful sheikhs that appeared to open doors. Business was booming too, in 2012, NMC was the first Abu Dhabi company to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) raised $186m too raised NMC’s market value to more than $8bn.

The first rumblings of financial trouble, however, came in December 2019 when an Worldwide investment corporation published a damning report on NMC’s finances. NMC’s shares plummeted by 48 percent, wiping $1.5bn off the Shetty family fortune.

In April 2020, NMC Health went into direction in the UK for insolvency. Later that month, the UAE Central Bank ordered the seizure of all of Shetty too his family’s assets too Shetty left the state. He now sees himself as the victim, claiming alleged fraud too misconduct within NMC – too has promised to clear his name too restore his business reputation.