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Dubai: Dr. B.R. Shetty, founder of NMC Healthcare and UAE Exchange Centre, has again confirmed an “imminent” return to the UAE. if this is the case, this will be a significant breakthrough in the NMC Healthcare corporate scandal that broke late last year and which later showed more than $4 billion in bank loans going missing.
Shetty, who founded NMC in 1975, had been outside of the UAE since February, and in the subsequent months was subject to multiple legal actions initiated by creditor banks. Court orders issued in Dubai and in India have placed strictures on the sale of his assets.
“I had travelled to India in February to be with my ailing brother who passed away at the end of March,” said Shetty in a statement issued to the media. This was “just as the pandemic spread [and] disrupting international travel.
“While I was in India, our investigations started to unravel details of the fraud in NMC Health, Finablr and some private companies owned by my family.
"I said at the time that I intended to return to the UAE and - having filed a criminal complaint against the suspected perpetrators of the fraud in India - I am planning my imminent return to the UAE as promised. I intend to support the UAE authorities and all relevant bodies to correct any injustice done to the companies, their employees, shareholders and other stakeholders and help find solutions to outstanding matters."
Blames senior executives
All through these months, Shetty had professed no knowledge of how the billions of dollars went missing. He initiated a personal investigation into the company’s affairs and, based on the findings, pointed the finger of accusation against senior officials of the previous management, including the then CEO Prasanth Manghat and his brother Promoth Manghat (who was the CEO of Finablr, the parent company of UAE Exchange Centre).
Both NMC and UAE Exchange were listed on London Stock Exchange, in 2012 and 2019, respectively.
In a recent update they gave to bankers and other creditors, the administrators – from the specialist consultancy Alvarez & Marsal – said: “We have set target dates for all the relevant steps to complete the formulation of strategy and preparation of claims arising from the investigation in order to seek redress from those parties connected to the fraud.”
It is now believed that some in the previous management is "helping" with the investigation, according to bankers. However this has not been officially confirmed.
No question of fleeing
In the statement, Shetty made the point that his intent was always to return to the UAE and clear up the mess he finds himself in.
“Reports that I had fled the country couldn’t be further from the truth,” Shetty added. “The fraud has regrettably caused huge challenges for the companies, great hardship for employees, disruption to supplies and losses to shareholders and creditors.
“I would like to thank the UAE Government, creditors, administrators and employees for keeping the operations of the company alive during the pandemic.
“I have complete faith in the justice system of the UAE and look forward to the perpetrators of the fraud facing justice.”
Shetty is yet to give a clear date on when the “imminent” arrival might be. Informed sources thought it could be as early as this week itself. That, however, remains to be seen.
The other company he founded, Finablr/UAE Exchange Centre, is now looking at a possible sale, with Israel’s Prism Advance Solutions as the suitor.
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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).