Anil Ambani named in UK case for using Mauritius route
15 Dec 2011
The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, already in trouble with a couple of its top executives in jail over the 2G spectrum scandal, faces another twister with the group's boss Anil Ambani himself being named in a court case in the UK.
The case is essentially against a couple of senior UBS private bankers who have been accused of sanctioning the creation of an illegal investment vehicle for Ambani by setting up an offshore investment vehicle called Pleuri in order to re-funnel the money through the now infamous 'Maurtius route'.
The claim has been made in a case brought against the UBS wealth management executives by the UK's Financial Services Authority, based on e-mails, which show that Pleuri was ostensibly owned by a French couple.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India bars Indian nationals from investing in domestic stocks through the foreign institutional investor (FII) route.
The two executives involved have left the bank for some time now, and one of them - Kurt Kumschick - died earlier this week.
Evidence shows that Kumschick, the Swiss bank's former marketing head for wealth management in the India-Pacific region, told two junior colleagues that whether the bank should create the Mauritius-based investment vehicle for Ambani would be a ''business decision'' even if the bank could not confirm its legality under Indian law.
