Mehul Choksi Biography, Scale Fraud, Antigua Citizenship, News

Mehul Choksi Biography

Mehul  Choksi is an Indian-born fugitive businessman, residing in Antigua and Barbuda. He is wanted by the Judicial Authorities of India for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonesty including delivery of property, corruption and money laundering. In an interview to a leading Hindi TV channel, Choksi has claimed that he is innocent & all allegations against him are false, baseless & motivated by political expediency.

Choksi holds an Antiguan citizenship, and is the owner of Gitanjali Group, a retail jewellery company with 4,000 stores in India. An arrest warrant for Choksi has been issued in connection with the alleged Punjab National Bank fraud case. He was allegedly involved in stock market manipulation in 2013. Choksi is a strict vegetarian

Mehul Choksi Age

Mehul Choksi was born as Mehul Chinubhai Choksi on 5 May 1959 in Mumbai, India. He is 59 years old as of 2018.

Mehul Choksi Family

Mehul Choksi to Chinubhai Choksi. He was educated at G. D. Modi College in Palanpur, Gujarat. His younger brother Chetan Chinubhai Choksi owned & operated a diamond company named Diminco NV, based in Antwerp, which had defaulted on a US$25.8 million payment to a subsidiary of ICICI Bank. In 2013, the bank litigated a lawsuit against Diminco NV, in commercial courts in Belgium and UK. He is the maternal uncle of billionaire Nirav Modi.

Mehul Choksi

Mehul Choksi Wife|Mehul Choksi Kids

He is married to Priti Choksi. He has three children, including a son Rohan, and two daughters, Maitreyi and Priyanka, who married Akash Mehta, an Antwerp-based diamond merchant in December 2010.

Mehul Choksi Career

He started his career in the gem and jewellery sector in 1975, and took over the leadership of Gitanjali Gems from his father in 1985, when it was focused on just rough and polished diamonds.
Choksi owns Gitanjali Group, which includes Gitanjali Gems.

Mehul Choksi Scale Fraud

In March 2018, a special PMLA court issued non-bailable arrest warrants (NBWs) against Choksi, and his nephews Nirav Modi and Neeshal Deepak Modi, owner of Firestar Diamonds. They are suspected of colluding with two employees of Punjab National Bank (PNB), the country’s second-largest state-owned lender, in an alleged $1.8 billion fraud. At least six PNB staff and at least six employees of Choksi and Modi have been arrested so far. Choksi is a fugitive of Indian government. Choksi has protested his innocence in an open letter. On 6 March 2018, the CBI detained Vipul Chitalia, the Vice-President of Gitanjali Group of Companies and a key aide of Choksi. Chitalia was arrested at Mumbai airport and will remain in custody till March 2018. A designated PMLA authority held that 41 properties worth about Rs 1,210 crore, attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the name of Mehul Choksi and his associated firms, are money laundering assets and ordered that their attachment should continue. The central probe agency provisionally attached 15 flats and 17 office premises in Mumbai, a mall in Kolkata, a four-acre farm house in Alibaug and 231 acres of land at locations like Nashik, Nagpur, Panvel in Maharashtra and Villupuram in Tamil Nadu, in February 2018 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the about US$2 billion alleged fraud at a Mumbai-based branch of the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

Mehul Choksi Antigua Citizenship News

Mehul Choksi got citizenship last year, India made no object Antigua 
Antigua confirms Mehul Choksi given citizenship in November

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a case against Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi in the PNB scandal in February this year.
ET Bureau|Jul 26, 2018, 07.36 AM IST

Antiguan authorities have confirmed that Mehul Choksi, coaccused in the $2-billion Punjab National BankNSE -1.93 % fraud case, is in the Caribbean island and said the jeweller had obtained his Antiguan citizenship November last year, before the PNB scandal broke out.
“After extensive vetting, Mehul Choksi was granted citizenship by registration in November 2017,” Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) of Antigua and Barbuda said in a statement on Wednesday, a day after reports emerged that he has moved to Antigua from the United States.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a case against Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi in the PNB scandal in February this year. Both have fled the country.
“Choksi’s application was subject to robust due diligence international investigation, which is conducted on each principal applicant and dependent, by reputable agencies, including the International Criminal Police Organisation and the CARICOM Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS),” the CIU statement said. It said the 2017 investigation revealed no derogatory information about Choksi.
A CBI spokesperson, however, said the agency had received no query or verification request from international police agency Interpol about Choksi’s antecedents or any pending inquiry or case. CBI is the nodal agency of Interpol in India.
According to CIU, Choksi swore the oath of allegiance in Antigua, a requirement under the provisions of the citizenship by Investment Act, on January 15, 2018.

Antigua is among the many tax havens in the Caribbean.

Mehul Choksi News

Mehul Choksi’s Firm Passed Off Lab-grown Diamonds as Natural Stones, Alleges US Probe

The report added that the process was carried out through a laboratory ‘secretly’ controlled by Choksi through a British Virgin Islands firm.

Updated:March 9, 2019, 7:48 AM IST

New Delhi: Fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi’s firm in the US, Samuels Jewelers Inc., may have sold lab-grown diamonds to customers by falsely certifying them as natural stones, a probe ordered by a US bankruptcy court has alleged.

The report added that the process was carried out through a laboratory “secretly” controlled by Choksi through a British Virgin Islands (BVI) firm, the Indian Express reported.

The forensic report also said Samuels Jewelers, owned by Gitanjali Gems Ltd, received about $20 million (Rs 139 crore) from the fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued to Gitanjali by Punjab National Bank (PNB) in India and the money was received through a “sham royalty agreement”, the paper reported.

Earlier, a former senior employee had alleged that the company would falsify the quality of its diamonds and even pass off fake diamonds as real ones.

“The diamonds were sold at a premium in the name of brand value, cuts and certifications that were given out. The certifications too were forged. A diamond that claimed to be of Grade A in a purchase made was actually Grade C,” the company’s former managing director Santosh Srivastava told Moneycontrol last year. “The diamonds that were passed as precious and rare and were actually lab produced coasted only 5%-10% of the cost it was sold at,” he said.

Choksi, who is one of the key people accused of defrauding Punjab National Bank of $2 billion, fled India before the accusations surfaced last year. Choksi, along with his nephew, diamond tycoon Nirav Modi, are accused of colluding with a handful of bankers to secure credit from overseas banks using fraudulent guarantees. Both have denied the allegations and have moved abroad.

Adopted From www.news18.com

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