BR Shetty fraud trial opens in London: NMC Health founder faces $5.4bn claim over UAE empire collapse

The civil fraud trial against BR Shetty, founder of NMC Health, opened in the UK Commercial Court in London this week, with administrators pursuing a $5.4 billion claim. The case covers systematic falsification of NMC's accounts over several years before the company's collapse in April 2020.

What the administrators allege

Ernst & Young, appointed as joint administrators when NMC entered administration, allege that Shetty directed a scheme to conceal billions in borrowing from lenders and investors. When administrators examined NMC's books, they found $6.6 billion in total debt against the $2.1 billion that had appeared in audited financial statements (a gap of roughly $4.5 billion hidden through forged bank documents and fabricated supplier invoices).

Co-defendants include Prasanth Manghat, NMC's former chief executive, and Binay Shetty, the founder's son and former executive vice-chairman. Manghat reached a partial settlement with the administrators on undisclosed terms before trial. Other former board members settled separately during 2024 pre-trial proceedings. The trial is expected to run approximately six months.

The specific allegations: Shetty used NMC's credit facilities to borrow funds diverted to entities he personally controlled, pledged shares he did not own as loan collateral, and ran related-party transactions through affiliated companies to extract cash while the group was technically insolvent.

The scale of what collapsed

At its peak, NMC operated more than 200 healthcare facilities across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the wider GCC, employing approximately 20,000 people. It was a FTSE 100 constituent with a market capitalisation near £8 billion before short-seller Muddy Waters Research published its report in December 2019 alleging inflated asset values and undisclosed related-party transactions.

The creditors pursuing recovery through the administrators include:

• Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB)
• Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB)
• Emirates NBD
• Standard Chartered

Dozens of other lenders hold additional claims. UAE courts separately pursued criminal proceedings against lower-level former NMC executives, with convictions recorded by 2024. The Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DOH) and the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) oversaw the transition of NMC's clinical operations to new operators after administration.

What the trial means for UAE private healthcare operators

For healthcare group CFOs, the NMC case is the most detailed public record of what coordinated governance failure looks like at group scale. The fraud ran through multiple annual audit cycles, each signed off by EY, the same firm now acting as administrator. Separate shareholder litigation against EY for audit failures runs alongside the main fraud action in London.

For lenders and investors active in UAE healthcare M&A, a $5.4 billion judgment (if awarded) would set a damages benchmark against which future governance failures could be measured. The trial is also expected to surface how UAE-based banking relationships were used to structure the concealment, detail that both DOH and MOHAP have flagged for regulatory review.

A judgment is not expected before late 2026. Recovery for creditors depends on assets that can be traced and seized, a process six years in progress with no confirmed end date.