About Us
FAQ
Global Law Experts Logo
Global Law Experts Logo
GLE-PP

Find a Global Law Expert

Specialism
Country
Practice Area

Awards

Since 2010, the Global Law Experts annual awards have been celebrating excellence, innovation and performance across the legal communities from around the world.

Bringing financial fraudsters / absconders to book

posted 6 years ago

There have been a string of recent incidents of businessmen committing default on the payments owed to banks and financial institutions and then fleeing overseas. According to official reports, 31 willful defaulters fled the country to avoid prosecution and punishment for violation of the laws and Indian authorities managed to get back only one person to India.

This has exposed the imminent need to fortify existing laws and procedures. Robust deterrents have to be built up to enforce such laws to thwart such fraudsters escaping from India to foreign soil.

The Parliament is deliberating to lodge a Fugitive Economic Offenders bill empowering relevant authorities to confiscate the assets of so-called fugitive economic offenders (guilt of an economic offense involving 1 billion rupees (US$15 million) or more) along with preparing a list (no-fly) of willful defaulters.

 It is estimated that economic offenders/fraudsters absconding from India to foreign soil are involved in the fraudulent cases worth $210 billion bad debt on banks’ balance sheets.

 There is huge pressure mounting on the central government from all quarters of the people to take stringent action on willful defaulters absconding and bad loans piling up are crippling the banking system challenging the very existence of the banks.

 The government is initiating immediate curative and damage controlling measures to sternly deal with willful defaulters (who willful absconds the country) to assuage public anger at the government and such willful defaulters.

 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently brought certain major policy modifications mandating the banks to resolve any default loan within 180 days of default and report willful defaulters list to the RBI on frequent basis.

It is high time for the government to amend the existing laws and procedures and more importantly to ensure modified laws are implemented without delay and any glitches to punish the willful economic defaulters and prevent them from fleeing India. Else more people will embrace the pattern of new fraud system introduced by the recent billionaires/fraudsters and escape unpunished – leading to the downfall of the banking and financial system leaving the economic development of nation and common man at jeopardy. 

Research inputs by Paruchuri Baswanth Mohan

**********************************************

About the Author:

Bhumesh Verma is a lawyer with over 2 decades of experience in advising domestic and international clients on corporate transactions (M&A, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Startups, corporate advisory, etc.) and features in “The A-List – India’s Top 100 Lawyers” by India Business Law Journal. He keeps writing frequently on FDI, M&A and other corporate matters and is a guest faculty as well. He can be reached at [email protected]

Author

Find the right Legal Expert for your business

The premier guide to leading legal professionals throughout the world

Specialism
Country
Practice Area
0
LAWYERS RECOGNIZED
0 m+
EVALUATIONS OF LAWYERS BY THEIR PEERS
0
PRACTICE AREAS
0
COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD

Join

0
who are already getting the benefits

Sign up for the latest legal briefings and news within Global Law Experts’ community, as well as a whole host of features, editorial and conference updates direct to your email inbox.

Naturally you can unsubscribe at any time.

Newsletter Sign Up

About Us

Global Law Experts is dedicated to providing exceptional legal services to clients around the world. With a vast network of highly skilled and experienced lawyers, we are committed to delivering innovative and tailored solutions to meet the diverse needs of our clients in various jurisdictions.

Contact Us

Stay Informed

Join Mailing List

GLE