Indian multimillionaire ordered to pay €0.5m to Maltese fuel supplier

Multimillionaire former Indian politician Vijay Vittal Mallya has been condemned to pay over half a million euros to a Maltese fuel supplier, for fuel supplied to his 311ft luxury yacht.

Melita Power Diesel limited filed judicial proceedings against the ship Indian Empress, a luxury yacht belonging to Vijay Vittal Mallya, an Indian businessman and former politician who is the subject of an extradition effort to try to force his return from the UK to India to face charges of financial crimes, which include fraud and money laundering.

The Maltese company filed special summary proceedings in court, saying that it was owed €651,399.77 for fuel supplied to the Indian Empress.

The defendant company, which manages the yacht, had filed a note in which it admitted the claim, late last month.

Judge Lawrence Mintoff ordered the yacht’s owners to pay the sum, with interests till the date of effective payment.

The claim compounds trouble over the vessel which was impounded in Malta in March due to an ongoing wage dispute with its crew, who are claiming over a million dollars in unpaid wages.

Mallya, the multi-millionaire co-owner of the Force India Formula One team and self-proclaimed “King of the Good Times”, was arrested in London last year over allegations he supported his F1 team with money-laundered cash.

The luxury yacht, which boasts a 15-seat cinema and Sir Elton John’s baby grand piano, has been impounded in a “maritime lien” which gives the crew claim over the vessel to the value of the unpaid wages.