Embattled tycoon Vijay Mallya has nearly ruined his palatial home on a French island and consequently, the value of the mansion has fallen tremendously, claimed a foreign lender. The bank has now taken him to court over the current pitiable condition of the mansion.
Mallya bought 'Le Grand Jardin' through his company Gizmo Invest SA using a 27-million euro ($30 million) loan facility from Ansbacher & Co., a unit of Qatar National Bank SAQ. Gizmo has since defaulted on the loan, the bank told a London high court, reported Bloomberg.
The lender is now seeking a court order to force Mallya to sell a 50-metre (164-foot) superyacht, currently impounded in southern England, because a 5-million euro mortgage on the boat serves as security for the loan, the report said. Mallya bought the mansion in 2008. By 2015, the 1.3-hectare property on the French island Ile Sainte Marguerite "had fallen into disrepair," the bank's lawyer Gideon Shirazi said in court documents, claimed the Bloomberg report. By then, the liquor baron was facing a $100 million lawsuit from Diageo Plc and $1.2 billion lawsuit from a consortium of Indian banks.
The mansion is in a state of despair after unsuitable interior designers and builders were engaged to carry out repairs at the property, the bank claimed. "On Mallya's request to extend the loan, the bank instructed Knight Frank to inspect the property, and the real estate agents found that the value had fallen by 10 millions euros to 30 million euros. By January 2018, the work on the property was still incomplete," the report claimed.
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Meanwhile, Mallya remains on bail pending the UK High Court appeal hearing in the extradition proceedings brought by India in relation to fraud and money laundering charges amounting to Rs 9,000 crores. He had been arrested on an extradition warrant back in April 2017 and has been fighting his extradition in the UK courts since then.
He was granted permission to appeal against his extradition order, which is scheduled in the Royal Courts of Justice in London for February next year.
Mallya is facing a UK court as part of efforts to recoup around 1.145 billion pounds in unpaid loans. The banks launched efforts to recover dues as part of the freezing order, with the bankruptcy petition aimed at seizing UK-based Mallya's assets to recover the dues.
