Vijay Mallya case: CBI to field forensic auditors' team to sort out loan tangle

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation, probing allegations over bank loan defaults against Vijay Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines, plans to rope in experts to conduct a forensic audit on the businessman and his companies.

A five-member expert audit team that the agency plans to depute will help in what CBI officials said nail “misrepresentation” by Mallya to obtain loans. A forensic audit examines a company or individual's financial information for use as evidence in court, in cases such as fraud, embezzlement and other financial irregularities.

The agency is also examining the manner in which Kingfisher Airlines was given a five-star ratings by Skytrax – a consultancy that ranks airlines and airports – that helped the company secure loans. Besides, it has sought a responses from Grant Thornton, a consultancy firm that gave a high rating to the airline and quoted its value at nearly Rs 3,000 crore on resumption of operations, said a senior officer heading the probe. It was using this report that Kingfisher raised funds to revive its fortune and obtained loan from banks, he said.

ET was first to report that the IDBI Bank executive committee set up to screen Mallya’s loan application gave a favourable report despite the company’s rating being BB, which is considered to be 'risky'.

The then chairman of IDBI Bank, Yogesh Agarwal, is under the scanner for not raising a red flag at the time. As per bank guidelines, the minimum eligibility required is BBB, said CBI.

Besides IDBI, probe into other loans given to Kingfisher by banks has revealed that Mallya gave personal guarantee of Rs 250 crore and collateral security of more than Rs 5,000 crore that included Kingfisher House in Mumbai, Kingfisher Villa in Goa and aircraft.

"We have found that the value of the properties and other collateral securities were shown more than the actual market value in order to obtain maximum bank loans. Strangely, none of the banks in their verification report pointed this out," said a CBI official on the condition of anonymity.

CBI officials also said State Bank of India, the lead bank in a consortium that gave Rs 7,000 crore to Mallya, is yet to file a complaint with the agency on the default.