Nirav Modi’s remand prolonged in UK till extradition judgment on February 25

Wanted diamond service provider Nirav Modi appeared through videolink from his London jail for an everyday call-over listening to at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, when he was additional remanded in custody till February 25 when the judgment in his extradition case is to be handed down.
District Judge Angus Hamilton knowledgeable Modi that he would almost certainly be showing once more through videolink on the day of the ruling, which can determine whether or not the 49-year-old jeweller has a case to reply earlier than the Indian courts on fraud and cash laundering in relation to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) rip-off case.

Last month, District Judge Samuel Goozee had confirmed the timeline for the judgment on the finish of closing submissions within the case, throughout which he heard that Modi is answerable for overseeing a “ponzi-like scheme” that prompted monumental fraud to PNB.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities, focussed on laying out the prima facie case of fraud, cash laundering and perverting the course of justice towards the diamantaire, who adopted the extradition proceedings remotely from a room at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London.
“The simple and stark fact is that he (Nirav Modi) used his three partnership companies to acquire billions of dollars worth of credit which was entirely unsecured and LoUs (letters of undertaking) were issued for wholly bogus trade”, CPS barrister Helen Malcolm had mentioned in her closing arguments.
“While the defence claims this is a mere commercial dispute, there is a plethora of evidence to point to a ponzi-like scheme where new LoUs were used to repay old ones”, she mentioned.
A ponzi scheme sometimes refers to an funding rip-off which generates funds for earlier buyers with cash taken from later buyers and the CPS sought to ascertain that Nirav used his companies “Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds” to make fraudulent use of PNB’s LoUs in a conspiracy with banking officers.
Modi’s defence group, led by barrister Clare Montgomery, in her counter-arguments sought to ascertain that all the course of comprised of authorised although ill-advised lending that happened in broad daylight and none of her shopper’s actions met the authorized threshold of perverting the course of justice or amounted to fraud.
The decide additionally heard detailed arguments from each side about why Modi’s “deteriorating” psychological well being situation does or doesn’t meet the Section 91 threshold of the Extradition Act 2003 which was most lately been used within the UK to dam the extradition of Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange on the grounds of it being unjust and oppressive as he’s a excessive suicide danger.
Modi’s extreme melancholy and danger of suicide on account of his prolonged incarceration since March 2019 have been raised as elements that ought to result in his discharge.
The CPS has challenged the defence stance and had known as for an unbiased analysis of medical data by a marketing consultant psychiatrist for acceptable assurances to be acquired by the authorities when it comes to his care in India.
Modi is the topic of two units of legal proceedings, with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case referring to a large-scale fraud upon PNB via the fraudulent acquiring of LoUs or mortgage agreements, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case referring to the laundering of the proceeds of that fraud.

He additionally faces two further fees of “causing the disappearance of evidence” and intimidating witnesses or “criminal intimidation to cause death” added to the CBI case.
The jeweller has been in jail since he was arrested on March 19, 2019, on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard and his makes an attempt at looking for bail have been repeatedly turned down.