NEW DELHI: After Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) is probing Religare Enterprises and its group company Fortis Healthcare for alleged frauds, and will soon be initiating probe against 10 more companies.
There were multiple cases of financial irregularities in both the companies. The matter was recently flagged to SFIO by market regulator SEBI after Fortis Healthcare’s promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh took around $78 million out of the company without any board approval about a year ago.
Both the brothers also allegedly feature in the list of 91 wilful defaulters who may leave the country. The list was initiated by the Finance Ministry last week.
“Apart from both the brothers, there are 10 companies whose cases are referred to us in connection with various financial irregularities,” a senior official of the Corporate Affairs Ministry told TNIE.
In the last four financial years, the Corporate Affairs Ministry has ordered investigations through SFIO into the affairs of 575 companies on account of alleged frauds.
This included probe in to 258 companies in the ongoing financial year (till March 15, 2018), Union Minister P P Chaudhary said on Friday in a written reply to Lok Sabha.The minister also added that SFIO has ordered investigation into the affairs of companies including Firestar Diamond International, Firestar International, Firestar Diamond Pvt Ltd, Nirav Modi Pvt Ltd, Gitanjali Gems Ltd and Nakshatra Brands Ltd.However, the investigations by SFIO have not unearthed any nexus between bureaucrats
and corporate houses for the purpose of committing corporate frauds as of now, Chaudhary added.