‘FRL played a fraud with help from RIL’
NEW DELHI: Future Retail Ltd (FRL) has placed false statements before various courts and colluded with Reliance Industries Ltd to consummate their ₹24,713 crore takeover deal, American e-commerce major Amazon has alleged in a petition filed before the Supreme court on Saturday.
A copy of the petition was reviewed by Mint.
Amazon said FRL never disclosed to a court or exchange that after the Singapore International Arbitration Centre’s (SIAC) order in October 2020, restraining FRL from entering into any deal with Reliance, it made sub-lease arrangements with the Mukesh Ambani-led group to operate at least 835 retail stores under Big Bazaar.
In fact, just 11 days before Reliance took surprise control of the Big Bazaar stores, FRL told the courts on February 15 that all retail stores would continue to be vested with FRL till the ₹24,713 crore transaction was approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), it added.
FRL has played an elaborate and orchestrated fraud to procure favourable orders by continuously making false assurances in relation to the continued vesting of its retail stores with FRL, Amazon has alleged.
The company also entered into arrangements with Reliance to alienate its retail stores in favour of the Reliance group in a clandestine manner to ensure the impugned transaction goes through even before the final order of the NCLT, Amazon alleged.
“FRL has not shown any document to prove that December 2020 /January 2021 onwards, the lessors of the (Big Bazaar) stores’ premises began terminating the leases on account of non-payment of lease rentals by FRL ...In fact, the purported surrender deeds filed by FRL demonstrate that lease deeds were being surrendered voluntarily and not on account of any failure to pay lease rentals,” it added.
“It is also incredible that there are no registered lease deeds entered by the landlords and MDA (Mukesh Ambani) group or between FRL and MDA group. The above facts demonstrate that MDA group is an accomplice to the orchestrated fraud committed on the courts and Indian statutory authorities,” Amazon said.
While the lease deeds were being transferred from landlords to RIL as the lessor, FRL had said during FY21 that it “did not have the money to clear the lease rental dues and prevent termination of leases with the landlords”. “But in its annual report, FRL mentioned that it had enough money to meet all lease obligations.”
On December 31, 2021, FRL said “the operating performance of FRL has been improving subsequent to the relaxation of the covid-led lockdown since July 2021, and revenues increased by 66% quarter-on-quarter and 60% year-on-year to reach ₹2,349 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2021.