NMC Health probed for issuing ‘fake’ invoices

SCANDAL-hit NMC Health is being investigated for allegedly using fake invoices for medical supplies to borrow money.

The hospitals provider, which was forced into administration by lenders in April, reportedly used sham documents as evidence that it had placed orders for the supplies.

The business was then provided credit by banks and factoring agents to finance the supposed transactions, according to the Financial Times.

The fake sales are said to have been funnelled through drugs company Neopharma, which is controlled by NMC founder BR Shetty ( pictured), and its joint venture Nexgen. Neopharma is investigating alleged fake invoices and whether they underpinned debt-raising by NMC.

Thousands of fake transactions are thought to have been carried out, raising questions about oversight from banks and NMC’s auditor, EY.

EY has already come under fire for its roll in the saga, after it had repeatedly signed off NMC’s books – despite the company later uncovering billions of pounds worth of secret debts.

The fake document allegations mark the latest twist in the extraordinary collapse of NMC, which until earlier this year was still a FTSE 100 member.

The crisis at the firm erupted after a blistering research paper – published by short seller Muddy Waters – raised ‘serious doubts’ about the Dubai-based firm’s accounting practices and claimed they bore ‘hallmarks of significant fraud’.

It later emerged that Shetty, the Indian billionaire whose empire also includes Travelex, had not properly disclosed his shareholdings in NMC and that more than £3bn in debts had been concealed from the board and investors.

The shock disclosures sent NMC’s shares into freefall and prompted the resignation of chairman Mark Tompkins and sacking of chief executive Prasanth Manghat.

Trading of the company’s stock was later suspended in March, with creditors taking legal action to force it to appoint administrators a month later.

Shetty has since claimed that unnamed bosses at NMC and other businesses he is involved in had forged his signature to create loans, personal guarantees, cheques and bank transfers in his name.

The Financial Conduct Authority, the City watchdog, is carrying out a probe into the scandal and the Financial Reporting Council is also examining the role of auditor EY, which had repeatedly given NMC’s books a clean bill of health. NMC has been placed into ‘light-touch’ administration, overseen by restructuring firm Alvarez and Marsal. The administrators are looking into the allegations of fraud as well.