DUBAI: NMC Health founder BR Shetty said on Saturday he planned to the return to the UAE and denied reports he had fled the country after the hospital group’s implosion under a mountain of previously undisclosed debt.

NMC went into administration in April following months of turmoil over its finances and the discovery that it has $6.6 billion in debt, well above earlier estimates.

Earlier this month, administrators Alvarez & Marsal took preliminary steps towards legal action against NMC’s auditor, Ernst & Young, as it seeks to increase recoveries for creditors.

“I travelled to India in February to be with my ailing brother who sadly passed away at the end of March, just as the pandemic spread across the world disrupting international travel,” Shetty said in a statement, adding that reports he fled “could not be further from the truth.”

Shetty said investigations he commissioned had uncovered details of fraud at NMC Health, Finablr and other private businesses owned by his family, which he said caused “great hardship for employees, disruptions to suppliers, and losses to shareholders including myself and creditors.”

He said he intended to return to the UAE, without specifying when, having filed a criminal complaint in India seeking a probe into two former top executives of his companies and two Indian banks related to the multibillion dollar financial scandal engulfing his group.

He said he intended to support UAE authorities “to correct any injustice done” and “help find solutions to outstanding matters.”

Reuters