In a landmark ruling, the ADGM Court of First Instance has held NMC Healthcare founder Dr. Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty and former CEO Prasanth Manghat responsible for a massive, multi-billion-dollar fraudulent scheme. The court determined that both executives were active participants in a sophisticated operation that saw assets misappropriated and financial statements falsified between 2012 and 2020. Consequently, the court has set $5.4 billion as the baseline figure for the contributions the pair must make to the company’s assets, with exact payment amounts to be determined in future proceedings.

The presiding judge systematically dismantled defenses offered by both men, rejecting their attempts to shift blame onto one another. While Dr. Shetty claimed he was an unwitting victim of his subordinates, the court dismissed this as highly improbable given the scale and duration of the fraud. Similarly, the court found Manghat’s claims of subservience to be inconsistent with the evidence, noting that he played a central role in the "loan recycling" schemes that misled lenders like the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. In a separate victory for the bank, Manghat was ordered to pay over $1 billion in damages, marking a significant step toward accountability for the collapse of what was once a flagship UAE healthcare provider.