Mehul Choksi pledged lab-made diamonds for loan, says CBI

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 2

The CBI has registered a fresh FIR against absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi for allegedly pledging “lab diamonds” and jewellery with inflated valuation in 2016 to secure Rs 25-crore loan from the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI).

Valuation ‘fraud’

• Absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi secured loan worth Rs 25 crore from the IFCI
• Pledged lab diamonds and other jewellery that was fraudulently shown to be worth Rs 34-45 cr
• Fresh valuations showed the pledged items were worth only from Rs 70 lakh to Rs 2 crore

Choksi along with his nephew Nirav Modi is wanted in a loan fraud case of Rs 13,500 crore. In the FIR, the CBI had named Choksi, his company Gitanjali Gems and valuers Surajmal Lallu Bhai and Co, Narendra Jhaveri, Pradip C Shah and Shrenik Shah, said officials.

According to valuations submitted by four different valuers, the jewellery pledged was in the range of Rs 34-45 crore on the basis of which the loan was sanctioned to Choksi, the IFCI said in its complaint.

As the company defaulted on payments, the IFCI started to invoke the pledged shares and jewellery. But the company could only sell 6,48,822 shares amounting to Rs 4,07 crore of the total 20,60,054 pledged. Fresh valuations showed that the pledged items were worth around Rs 70 lakh to Rs 2 crore. The pledged diamonds were found to be low quality lab-prepared chemical vapour diamonds and other inferior colour stones, and not real gemstones.

The loan account was declared a non-performing asset on June 30, 2018, causing loss of over Rs 22 crore to the IFCI, it said. Choksi is already accused of siphoning off over Rs 6,344.96 crore from Punjab National Bank using fraudulent letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit.

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