Vijay Mallya, the fugitive former head of India’s United Breweries and United Spirits, is waiting to learn whether he will evicted from a luxury property in one of London’s most prestigious areas, Cornwall Terrace in Regent’s Park.
Swiss Bank UBS wants to repossess the property and evict Mallya and his family after repeated failure to repay a £20.4m five-year mortgage taken out on the mansion in 2012. It is owned by Rose Capital, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, which itself is ultimately owned by Sileta Trust, a Mallya family vehicle.
The due date for repayment fell in March 2017, almost a year after Mallya fled to the UK to avoid arrest in India to faces charges of fraud and money laundering associated with more than £1.15 billion in bank loans granted to his Kingfisher Airlines, which collapsed spectacularly in 2012.
Indian courts have since seized assets owned by Mallya to repay those debts and have succeeded with an international arrest warrant demanding Mallya be returned to India.
In India, Mallya has been declared a “wilful defaulter” a “proclaimed offender” and “fugitive economic offender”. He has also been found to be in contempt of the country’s Supreme Court.
He exhausted all judicial measures to resist extradition from the UK in the summer of 2019 when the Supreme Court in London declined to hear an appeal from him but he remains in the UK until a “confidential legal matter” is resolved.
This is widely thought to be an application for political asylum. Mallya has often alleged that the charges against him in India are politically motivated and that he would not receive a fair trial.
On average, applications for political asylum in the UK take six months to be heard but the process can last five years or more. Previously, a member of Mallya’s legal team has said that he will “never” be extradited to India.
As part of separate bankruptcy proceedings issued by the banks in London, Mallya’s global assets have been frozen by a court which has granted him £18,000 a month on which to live.
In separate actions Diageo and its Indian subsidiary are seeking to reclaim a combined £250m from Mallya and have been awarded an initial judgement against him in London for repayment of some £140m.
On Monday Deputy Judge Marsh refused Rose Capital more times to sell assets to repay the mortgage on the Regent’s Park mansion after UBS argued that approaching five years had elapsed since the due date had fallen. He reserved his ruling until a later date.
If UBS gains possession of the property to sell it, Mallya will be able to live in his other UK mansion at Tewin in Hertfordshire.
