NMC founder BR Shetty claims to be victim of a fraud

Former executives set up bank accounts, transferred funds and even started companies without his knowledge, he claims

Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, the founder of NMC Health and payments firm Finablr, said preliminary investigations carried out by his advisers "indicate that serious fraud and wrongdoing appears to have taken place" at both companies, as well as at other businesses he owns.

Mr Shetty, who returned to his native India in February, but who has vowed to return to the UAE to clear his name, blamed the fraud on "a small group of current and former executives at these companies".

Bank accounts were created in his name, and loans, cheques and bank transfers were all guaranteed without his knowledge and using his "forged signature", Mr Shetty said yesterday. He added that entire companies were set up "in my name that I neither authorised, consented to, or had any knowledge of".

"To see everything that my family and I have strived to build over the past 45 years eroded over the course of a few short months, and mainly due to the misconduct and wrongdoing of people I put so much trust in, saddens me beyond words," Mr Shetty said.

Mr Shetty started NMC from a single clinic in 1975, building it into the UAE's biggest private healthcare operator, with 2,000 doctors and almost 20,000 other staff. It was placed into administration earlier this month.

Problems at the company first emerged in December, when short seller Muddy Waters released a report saying NMC Health had inflated its cash balances, overpaid for its assets and understated its debt.

This sparked an independent investigation which found that debts at NMC Health were much higher, at $6.6bn, than the $2.1bn previously stated in its accounts. That led its biggest lender, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, to petition for the appointment of administrators, although its hospitals, clinics and pharmacies continue to operate. Banks in the UAE have declared exposure of at least Dh8bn to NMC Health, and more than Dh10bn to Mr Shetty's broader empire, including payments and currency exchange group Finablr, which owns the UAE Exchange and Travelex brands.

A spokesman for the joint administrators of NMC Health said they will review Mr Shetty's statement as part of their investigations into NMC Health. They also said they "look forward to Dr Shetty sharing the findings of his investigation with us". ADCB declined to comment.