Criminal Conspiracy

The Winsome Group, involved in diamond and gold trade, through its three Dubai-based companies, has committed the second biggest bank loan default after Kingfisher Airlines.
A criminal conspiracy to take money out of the country have led to India’s second largest bank loan default case involving the Winsome Group’s debt of almost Rs. 7,000 crore.
According to Diamond Intelligence Briefing, a trade magazine, three of the Dubai-based companies that had defaulted on their payments to Winsome Group in 2012, and which, in turn, led to the group defaulting on its loans from Indian banks, have been part of the parent group for a very long time.
The group earlier claimed that the defaulting companies were third parties beyond its control, and thus the chain of events that set off the massive financial loss to the Indian banks was beyond the group’s control. The group’s buyers of gold and diamonds in the Gulf region had defaulted on payments, resulting in his group’s inability to repay the banks. The group’s buyers, who were third party, had suffered losses of $1 billion in derivatives and commodities trading.
But in real all the defaulters that had been in existence before 2012 were insured in the block policy by Winsome Group and then, simultaneously and mysteriously, not renewed at the renewal time.
In 2011-12, when the annual insurance policy had to be renewed, the three Gulf-based companies were removed from the policy of Winsome Group. Within a few months these companies allegedly defaulted on payments to Winsome, which in turn defaulted on payments to the Indian banks.
According to official records of Indian banks, the Winsome Group has now accumulated defaults of almost Rs. 7000 crore on loans from a consortium of 15 public sector banks.
The Winsome Group borrowed in the name of three group companies — Rs. 4,366 crore to Winsome Diamond &Jewellers, Rs. 1,932 crore to Forever Precious Diamond and Jewellery and Rs. 283 crore to Suraj Diamonds.
BY: ANKIT RAJPUT