Govt has made me a poster boy of bad loans and financial crime: Mallya

United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd Chairman Vijay Mallya has accused the government of making him a “poster boy of bad loans and financial crime” and assured shareholders he would fight legally to recover assets seized by agencies over unpaid loans taken to run Kingfisher Airlines.

Mallya, who has exiled himself in the UK, addressed shareholders at the 100th annual general meeting in a pre-recorded video message, saying, “When a batsman scores a century in cricket, everybody applauds, and for a company to celebrate its 100th AGM is a sign of sustainability, maturity and continued success. It pains me that I am not there personally to share this wonderful occasion with shareholders.”

Mallya, once the poster boy of India’s liquor industry, lost his empire to global rivals Diageo and Heineken after his airline venture flopped. He also cut a non-compete deal with Diageo that earned him close to ~500 crore.

Mallya had pledged shares he owned in his companies to a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) to take loans of about ~6,200 crore to run the defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

Since then, banks have filed cases against him in courts and debt recovery tribunals to recover the money. He has also been charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of laundering money to offshore accounts. As the pressure built up on Mallya, he moved to the UK in May — a base he considers safe to run his businesses.

The government has impounded his passport and the Supreme Court has directed Mallya to disclose his assets globally.

Mallya says the airline’s accounts were managed by a consortium of banks led by SBI and he could account for every paisa incurred by the failed venture. “Business is all about success and failure and it is unfortunate that only in few select cases, all the government agencies chose to ignore this very basic fact. Instead, I am now being accused of having stolen or siphoned out ~6,000 crore out of Kingfisher Airlines without any legal basis whatsoever,” he said.

“As a part of its concerted effort to make me a poster boy of bad loans and financial crime, the government continues to attach properties and threaten other forms of action. All of which I assure you, my dear friends, will be contested in the courts of law,” he said.

The UBHL board, in the absence of a managing director, appointed Mallya as the principal officer to monitor the operations of the company from the UK. UBHL’s previous managing director V Shashikanth quit in May 2014.