NMC finds suspected fraud

AILING NMC Health has admitted it may have found evidence it was involved in fraud.

The FTSE 100 hospital operator, which runs high-end medical facilities in the Middle East, had engaged former FBI director Louis Freeh and his company to conduct an independent review after it was attacked by short-seller Muddy Waters.

The business admitted yesterday that the probe had ‘discovered evidence leading to suspected fraudulent behaviour in relation to some elements of NMC’s previous financial activities’.

The company said it had notified authorities in the UK and the United Arab Emirates of the suspected illegal activity.

Ever since Muddy Waters published its damning dossier on NMC at the end of last year, the hospital group has begun to unravel. The company admitted that it did not know how many shares its founder, Indian-born billionaire, Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, and other major investors actually owned in the company.

Just this week it discovered it had taken out £2.1bn in secret debt facilities which its board had never approved.

Its shares have been suspended since February 27.