The TLDR: It is the fate of every fabulously wealthy man to be burdened with a younger sibling—whose role is to tarnish the family name, spend insane amounts of money, and then go publicly and embarrassingly broke. Meet Pramod Mittal—UK’s very own Anil Ambani. The man who once spent £50 million ($82 million) on his daughter's wedding has been declared bankrupt—and due to his links with organised crime, no less!
Who is this Pramod person now?
He is the younger brother of Lakshmi Mittal—the head of ArcelorMittal steel, and the 19th richest man in the UK with an estimated fortune of £6.78 billion ($9.1 billion). Though both are NRIs, their family fortune was very much homemade.
It dates back to Papa Mittal buying a Kolkata steel mill in 1952. In 1974, the family business was dubbed Ispat Group, and quickly expanded its operations overseas. In 1994, Lakshmi Mittal, decided to break out on his own—taking control of the international operations. The Indian side fell to the two younger brothers—Pramod and Vinod. And ever since, Pramod has accumulated a mountain of legal troubles both at home and abroad.
First, tell me about this latest mess
Pramod has been declared bankrupt due to £130 million ($160 million) in debt:
What’s shady about this?
The shady bit is what Pramod did with GIKIL. In 2019, Mittal was arrested in Bosnia on suspicion of illegally funneling $12.3 million from GIKIL to a number of private accounts. He was charged by the local prosecutor of connections with organised crime and abuse of office. Pramod was held for a month and let out on $1.2 million bail.
But, but, but this is not the first time he’s run afoul of the law. In fact, his first big legal tamasha played out in India—and bade bhai had to bail him out.
What happened in India?
Back in 2005, two of Pramod’s companies defaulted on massive payments to the government-owned State Trading Corporation of India. When he refused to pay, STC had to take Pramod to court. The Enforcement Directorate initiated various criminal proceedings against his companies, and the Central Bureau of Investigation filed an FIR in the case.
In March, 2019, the case was finally settled in the Supreme Court —a la Anil Ambani—when big brother Lakshmi finally stepped in to bail him out. The final settlement: Rs 2,210 crore. At the time, a family friend said: “Family is very important to him (Lakshmi) so it's not surprising he would help his brother out."
Point to note: Mukesh-bhai only paid Rs 458 crore to save his brother around the same time. He must be feeling blessed!
A measure of Lakshmi’s generosity: While Lakshmi has always been the star in the family, Pramod jostled his way into the spotlight by throwing his daughter 'the world's most expensive wedding'—which cost $82 million (Rs 505 crore). That was $22 million more than what Lakshmi spent on marrying off his kid in 2004. No doubt, that price difference wasn’t an accident. Then again, that's a small change compared to the $100 million Mukesh-bhai spent on his daughter’s wedding.
So Lakshmi will bail him out again?
Nope, not this time, according to a source who told The Times: "They are no longer close and live separate lives. Lakshmi does not see why he should be financially responsible for his brother. This debt has nothing to do with him." Ouch!
The bottomline: We’re now the global factory of Nirav Modis. Our gift to the world: debt-dodging billionaires.
Reading list
Times UK has the original report on Pramod’s bankruptcy but is behind a pay wall. Daily Mail has highlights you can read. The Print offers an overview of the Mittals sibling rivalry. Business Standard explains why Pramod’s fortunes failed in India. This 2003 Financial Express piece makes clear that Pramod Mittal was the predecessor of the Vijay Mallyas of today—brazenly using his connections to run up bills he never intended to pay.
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