Bankrupt, the tycoon who spent £50m on daughter’s wedding
‘Personally liable for the full amount’
A TyCooN who funded the world’s costliest wedding for his daughter has been declared bankrupt.
Pramod Mittal, 64 – whose brother lakshmi is England’s 19th richest man – has a mansion in Mayfair, and lavished £50million on the wedding of his daughter shristi in 2013.
But he has come crashing down to earth after being declared bankrupt over a debt of £140million – plus interest which is mounting daily.
The declaration means that accountants will be able to pore over his finances in an effort to recover the huge sum, unless his appeal against the order succeeds.
Previously his even- richer brother lakshmi, 70, who has a £300million home near Hyde Park and heads the biggest steel-making firm in the world, has helped bail him out of his debts.
last year lakshmi is understood to have helped his younger brother pay off most of £235million he owed to an Indian state firm. only then did delhi’s supreme court halt police action against Pramod.
But the brothers have become more and more estranged, and Pramod is entangled in increasing problems – which have led to the criminal inquiries in India and, last year, to his arrest and incarceration in Bosnia.
He was held there over what was said to be millions missing from the firm that is connected to the bankruptcy declaration.
He was only released some days later after providing around £1million bail money.
Now, despite his protests, a london judge has declared him bankrupt over a debt of more than £139million owed to Moorgate Industries uK.
Mr Mittal, an Indian citizen, is being held liable because he and Global steel Holdings ltd of the Isle of Man have responsibility for the debts built up by a Bosnian company called GIKIl.
Insolvencies and Companies
Court Judge Burton ruled, in a judgment published yesterday: ‘Mr Mittal is personally liable to pay the full amount of the claim.’
Mr Mittal claimed he is imminently due to receive tens of millions from a business dispute in Nigeria – but the judge pointed out that financial battle has been dragging on since 2008.
Mr Mittal fought the bankruptcy order, and is continuing to appeal, saying Moorgate’s claim against him is limited to £50million rather than £140million and GIKIl has the potential to pay off the full sum. An interim court order against Moorgate compelled it to pay a fraction – £66,000 of his legal costs – but it has simply deducted it from the £140million it says he owes, a move the judge agreed with.
He owes the money thanks to his involvement in GIKIl in Bosnia, which produces coke for steel production, the Mittal family’s specialism.
GIKIl failed to repay the £140million debt seven years ago, and has been pursued ever since.
Matters became more serious last year with police in Bosnia arresting up to seven people – including company president Pramod Mittal – over allegations that £10million in company funds were syphoned off overseas.
He and two fellow Indians, who had senior roles in the Bosnian firm, were freed while the inquiry continues after paying personal bail of some £1million plus an additional ‘insurance’ payment of £11million into a court account.
Mr Mittal’s lawyer richard Viegas said the bankruptcy order was being contested, and that it was a result of a ‘complex corporate matrix’.
A source said of the Mittal family: ‘They are no longer close and live separate lives.’
The wedding Pramod threw for his daughter shristi took place at Barcelona’s National Museum of Catalan Art, and lasted three days, with a 132lb (60kg) cake for 500 guests.
It reportedly cost £10million more than the £40million lakshmi – owner of Arcelor Mittal – spent for his daughter Vanisha’s nuptials at the Palace of Versailles near Paris, in 2004 – when Kylie Minogue provided the entertainment and the fireworks were launched from the Eiffel Tower.