Zee Media Bureau
Jewellery exporter Winsome Group, which has amassed over Rs 6,500 crore default on loans from a consortium of 15 banks, mostly state-run lenders, might have diverted the loan money abroad, a daily newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Documents accessed by the paper on loan default smacks of criminal conspiracy.
The documents raises suspicion that a part of the loan was diverted abroad to businesses outside India. The files also raises suspicion that the money was routed to real estate investments in Mumbai and Dubai.
It may be recalled that in May 2013 three foreign lenders of the troubled Winsome Diamonds encashed their letters of credit, thereby forcing the banks to form a core group to monitor the issue on a regular basis.
Domestic lenders like PNB, which is the consortium and other banks had given standby letters of credit (SBLCs) in favour of international bullion banks like StanChart of London, Standard Bank of South Africa, and Scotiabank, which have encashed these LCs last year after the Mumbai-based firm failed to pay up these foreign banks.
Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery had failed to service the dues on time following default by its clients who reportedly lost heavily on derivatives following the steep fall of gold prices. The issue relates to Windsome's purchase of bullion from these three bullion banks for which it had raised letters of credit from 15 domestic banks in favour of these three foreign banks.
The problem started after Winsome's Dubai-based clients defaulted on their payment, leading to Winsome also defaulting its payment to foreign banks, which in turn invoked one of the letters of credit, resulting in all the LCs being invoked even before the maturity period.
With PTI Inputs
