India’s Biggest Bank Fraud | Vijay Mallya | Fact Glow
India’s Biggest Bank Fraud | Vijay Mallya
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An Indian man who was once called the King of Good Times, used to live the life of a Maharaja in his time, used to throw parties worth crores of rupees in a single night and while billionaires around the world have private jets, he had his own private Boeing 727, but Today his name is linked to the biggest fraud case in Indian history.
Yes, we are talking about Vijay Mallya’s King Fisher, that was the name which made him the owner of everything that a common man dreams of but after all. What happened in me that this very name drowned it completely? Once again welcome to Fact Glow. Vijay Mallya was born in a rich family in 1955 and since childhood, he saw only money in his life.
Father Vitthal. Malia had no shortage of money because she had control over most of the liquor industry in India. She was the director and largest shareholder of United Brewery. Due to her business nature, she is not looked upon well across the country. She is away from the media. Vijay Mallya was his only son.
He used to live the life of a Maharaja since childhood but his hobbies were different. He was very fond of cars since childhood. He was fond of it and at a time when children in India used to play Lattu and marbles, Vijay Mallya used to play with remote controlled vehicles. Vital Mallia never tried to take out the silver spoon from his mouth and the result was that when Vijay grew up, he lost all his hobbies.
He was also the same, now he became fond of real vehicles and not toy vehicles. He had a collection of around 250 vintage cars and more than 200 horses just as a hobby. Vitthal Malia did not like this hobby of his because he believed that such hobbies were A person who nurtures cannot become a good businessman but Maharaja’s hobby had no value.
Vijay Mallya won the Indian Grand Prix award in 1982 and became the national champion by winning the trophy. He would have taken his hobby to the next level but then An incident happened which changed the track of his life forever. Vitthal Malia died suddenly of a heart attack. Vijay was 28 years old at that time and this shock changed his life at an age when he wanted to be more carefree.
The responsibility of managing his father’s business empire fell on his shoulders. At that time, many close people believed that because Vijay was used to the life of Maharajas, he would not be able to run such a big business empire, but as was thought, Vijay did exactly the opposite. United Brewery Of all the products, King Fisher attracted Vijay the most because Vijay himself had launched it a few years before his father’s death.
Vijay himself was a youngster at that time and he knew very well that if King Fisher If you want to make a hit in the market, there is only one way to do it and that is to target the youngsters. Bangalore was the first city in India from where the culture of pubs started and it was here that the success of King Fisher was hidden.
It targeted King Fisher among the youngsters in various ways. This trend was becoming quite viral where youngsters used to sit in pubs till 4 o’clock in the night, where a good atmosphere was provided in pubs. Earlier, there was only one pub in Bangalore. After 5 years, 40 new pubs were opened there. And King Fisher was taking direct advantage of this.
Within a few years, King Fisher took over as a brand. People started asking for drinks in the name of King Fisher instead of beer. At that time, many Indian politicians opposed this western culture. Raised voice against it but Vijay did not care about anyone, he just wanted to prove that he had taken the success of United Brewery to sky-high heights and there was no doubt that UV had become India’s largest liquor manufacturer.
Even one out of every two bottles of King Fisher started being sold. Vijay Mallya was living the life of a king at that time. Its name was quite inspiring in India because at that time even buying a common car in India was not a dream of the people. At that time, Mallya was living the life of a king. It was no less than a nightmare for Mallia.
Liquor was banned in many parts of India, King Fisher’s sales started falling rapidly and in the band states, the government started holding a lot of bottles and started running road rollers there. This is Vijay Mallia. There was a direct loss to be incurred but this was just the beginning.
After this, the Indian government created a new problem by harassing Vijay Mallya because in the states where there was permission to sell liquor, TV and newspapers are now available. Liquor advertising was banned in 1937. This decision was taken at a time when Malia was focusing on the growth of his business. At this juncture, a method of advertising of King Fisher was adopted which is called surrogate advertising.
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This advertising technique is used all over the world. It is especially used for those products whose advertising is banned. In this, any brand markets its product in the hard copy of other products whose sale does not have any restriction. Now King Fisher was a well-known brand in India, hence Vijay. Malia launched King Fisher Mineral Water and Soda Water and started advertising them.
Even though the ad was for water, everyone knew what it was marketing for. Even in 1996, when India was hosting the World Cup, King Fisher had launched an ad. He took the help of viral advertising and reached out to his target audience. He was successful in making King Fisher a national brand, a brand whose name was known to every person.
Vijay Mallya had learned the skill of targeting people of every age group. He started sponsoring every small and big event where there was media presence and in this way, King Fisher’s name became famous in the media even without wanting to. Later, King Fisher Calendar was also launched in which photo shoots of Indian models were included.
Many big names of Bollywood were born through this calendar, including Deepika Padukone who won the title of Calendar Girl in 2006 and her first movie was released in 2008. Similarly, names like Katrina Kaif and Nargis Fakhri were also born due to this calendar. Vijay Mallya himself used to choose the models for the Utha Kingfisher calendar and this calendar started from 2003 and continued for the next 19 years.
Mallia advertised the drinking culture in India to such an extent that it is very difficult to imagine, there is no such thing. What he did not have was wealth, fame and most of all a brand which was no less than a hen laying golden eggs. There was a lack of power and that too he compensated by joining politics.
He found only one thing very bad and that was He was given a name which was related to his profession, yes, the uncrowned king of liquor or Liquor Baron. Deep inside Malia was worried that in India, she is not looked upon with good eyes. Of course, everyone follows her, but He also knew that all this is a miracle of money.
Vijay Mallya had to earn a name which could give him respect in the society, that is why a dangerous plan was being formed in his heart, a plan which would snatch the title of King of Good Times from Vijay Mallya. In 2004, Vijay Mallya bought 12 Airbus A320s worth $204.4 million and announced the launch of a luxury airline in the name of King Fisher.
He wanted to upgrade the flying experience of the common man. It was told in the commercial of the airline. That he does not hire flight attendants but models. A huge event was organized for the grand launch of the airline, in which high profile guests from all over the country were invited. King Fisher Airlines was launched on the 18th birthday of his son.
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This is a completely different kind of event. Due to this launch event of the airline, King Fisher’s name became famous all over the world and it started emerging as a lifestyle brand. From the flight attendants to the food menu of the airline, Vijay Mallya himself used to select it and the uniforms of these models were famous fashion. This airline was designed by designer Manu Viraj Khosla.
There was neither A class nor economy class but it was called a luxury airline because Vijay said that it has its own luxury class King Fisher Class and there was no doubt that there was such luxury in the flight. Services were provided which other airlines could not provide in tickets of this budget. In no time, King Fisher changed the airline industry in India.
Now slowly, Vijay Mallya’s image of liquor baron started changing because apart from selling liquor, he had There was also an airline. Vijay Mallya was wasting money like water on King Fisher Airline. One day during the Air Bus factory tour, the sales team surrounded him and showed him such things that on the same day, Mallia bought a new plane worth 1 billion dollars from them.
Now the matter started moving away from budget airlines towards premium class which was actually not the market demand because most of the travelers wanted to travel in low budget. Earlier where there was no class, now A class was launched in which the best things started being served. Luxury seating, premium service and food that the majority of Indians had probably never eaten before, such as Lobs, whose name passengers were often hearing for the first time. The airline’s operating costs increased significantly due to the launch of new classes
and purchase of additional air buses. More ground staff and extra flight attendants were hired, while there was no impact on sales due to lack of demand for luxury class. Due to this, King Fisher Airline suffered a loss of Rs 347 crore in the first 18 months. This is a small amount for Vijay.
And even in this condition, he kept investing a lot of money in the airline. Earlier King Fisher Airline used to run only domestic flights and Vijay Mallya was in a hurry to launch international flights but the issue was that no airline could launch international flights till then. Until he got 5 years of experience in domestic flights, hence in a hurry he bought another airline named Air Deccan.
Firstly, this deal was done at a much higher price than the market price and on top of that, it was loan money which Vijay Malia had taken the loan from the Indian Bank, her plan was simple, take the loan money, invest it in the airline and repay the loan after getting the return. It is a very simple thing to say but in reality it was a trap in which the biggest condition was to get the return.
However, King Fisher had now become an international airline and the passengers were also very happy, but internally the airline started getting buried under debt. At the time when all these matters were going on, Vijay Mallya was buying a Formula One team. Apart from this, he also started cricket. He bought Indian Airlines teams, which was his hobby, despite knowing that his airline was burdened with loan money.
After that, something happened due to which not only Indian but the entire world’s airlines got into trouble. In 2008, there was a recession in the American market. Stock markets crashed, fuel prices increased and people’s purchasing power reduced. Whenever there is a recession, people control their expenses, in which unnecessary travel is the first hit.
Now because US dollars is an international currency, that is why. It affects the whole world and this time also the same happened. Fuel prices increased three times. Companies canceled their trips while the number of tourists decreased. In this situation, only those airlines can survive which are free from unnecessary expenses.
But King Fisher Airlines was famous for its extravagant expenses. They did not reduce their expenses even in the recession. Their rates were lower than other airlines and the services were very high. There was no doubt that King Fisher Airlines It is running badly in loss and its pot was bound to burst one day or the other.
When this pot burst, it also opened up new secrets. On September 12, 2011, a report was published by a Canadian research firm, the title of which was Pie in the Sky. Whatever was published in this report exposed all the secrets of King Fisher Airlines. In fact, the Aeritor firm observed that at a time when all the airlines of the world were going into losses, despite King Fisher’s flights etc. being empty, They are providing excellent services to the people.
When they found that the matter was wrong, they started investigating and found out that the expenses of King Fisher Airline were more than their sales and this report became very interesting when it was told that all these expenses Actually, this is the loan money which King Fisher had taken from various banks.
In October 2009, IDBI, which is a public sector bank, gave a loan of 200 million dollars to King Fisher. Now normally, whenever any bank gives a loan, it first gives a loan. He asks whether the person to whom the loan is being given will actually be able to repay the loan or not, for which he also keeps a guarantee, but Vijay Mallya showed false documents to the bank and told how he would get so much benefit in the future and he would be able to withdraw all this money.
Will return it now because King Fisher and Vijay Mallia were big names at that time, hence the bank passed this entire loan in name only, which was a very irresponsible act. In 2009 and 2010, King Fisher Airline made a total of Rs. Expenses were also incurred, either by taking loans or by taking services on credit, the figure of which was recorded up to 7 billion dollars.
This report of Very Toss created a stir all over India because it was clearly written in it that King Fisher was going bankrupt. After this report, King Fisher stopped getting fuel on credit and the situation reached such a stage that the catering service which used to provide excellent food to the passengers also did not get money for many months and they also had to eat badly.
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It was a very difficult time for Kingfisher Airlines and Vijay Mallya. During this time, there was a shortage of food for the passengers in the flights and on one occasion the flight attendants even offered their food to the passengers. After this, that day also came.
When the salaries of the staff of King Fisher Airlines were also stopped, they were shown the hope that the company would soon pay off the losses and give salaries to everyone. Six months passed while doing this, but no one got even a single rupee of salary. The staff protested. But nothing was received except promises. The sad thing was that while all this was going on, 900 employees had not received salaries for 6 months.
At the same time, Vijay Mallya was running a Formula One team and a cricket team. Of course, at that time King Fisher Airlines. He did not have money but Vijay Mallya had it. There was no shortage in his Shahana lifestyle and when King Fisher’s employees saw all this, their blood started running cold. Meanwhile, the Income Tax Department of Mumbai issued two fines for non-payment of tax.
Sometimes the bank accounts of King Fisher Airlines were seized. In the beginning of 2012, more than half of King Fisher’s planes were grounded and it also lost its title of top Indian airline. In October 2012, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation suspended the license of King Fisher. Gave and this was the last day of King Fisher Airline.
Vijay Mallya had taken a total loan of Rs 9000 crore from 17 Indian banks. Most of this money was the money of public sector banks, that is, it was the people’s money. After not getting the loan back, the banks took Vijay Mallya. A case was filed against Vijay Mallya in which it was told that Vijay Mallya is a willful defaulter, that is, he knowingly took a loan from the bank when he knew that his airline was sinking.
CBI and Info Enforcement Directorate also conducted an inquiry regarding this matter in which it was found out that It happened that while taking the loan, Vijay Mallya had taken loan from the bank by showing fake documents and in the investigation, evidence was also found that the money which was taken to save King Fisher Airline, he actually used for his personal luxuries and other businesses of UB.
On the one hand, all these things were there, on the other hand, people’s anger against Vijay Mallya increased when even under these circumstances, he celebrated his 68th birthday with great pomp in Goa, in which famous singer Enrique Glacias was invited to this party. Excluding other expenses, Enrique’s fee for attending the corporate event was only one and a half million dollars, which means that according to an estimate, by paying only 20% for the expenses of this party, he could at least pay the salaries of his employees for 6 months.
Who was in a lot of trouble when legal action started in India against Vijay Mallya, he left India and went to UK in 2016. Indian authorities canceled his passport and sent a request to UK Government for extradition against him. The Indian government wanted to bring back Mallya so that his trial could be conducted in India.
The extra case went on for a long time in the UK courts, but in December 2018, the UK court decided that Vijay Mallya should be sent back to India, on which Malaya appealed to the UK court. On the other side of the appeal against the decision, insolvency cases were going on against Vijay Mallya in the Indian courts and its judgment had also come, under which an order was given to seize his properties.
The Enforcement Directorate froze his Indian and international assets. So that the banks could be recovered, Mallya’s luxury cars, bungalows and UB’s company shares were put up for auction. Vijay Mallya tried several times for settlement with Indian courts and banks but did not get any success. Vijay after the Kingfisher Airlines collapse.
Mallia’s public image got spoiled a lot and he was criticized a lot by media and people especially because he was living a luxury life in UK whereas in India he was under pressure to repay the loan. Till now Vijay Mallia’s legal team is protecting him but India Efforts to bring him back are still going on.
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