New Delhi: Neeshal Modi, the younger brother of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi has written to Enforcement Directorate (ED), distancing himself from his brother’s actions and said that he had no knowledge of it. Neeshal Modi had written the e-mail to the ED 11 months ago saying that being Nirav Modi’s brother he always had the belief that his brother will always carry out his business in a legitimate fashion and that he never had knowledge of any alleged criminal activities.
He added that he is neither an owner nor a shareholder/beneficiary of Nirav’s wealth and that he always and only received remuneration in the form of a fixed salary.
Antwerp-based Neeshal Modi has also submitted a forensic report of self-appointed Belgium-based independent auditing firm Van Den Keybus Van Der Jeught.
The forensic audit by the firm has given a clean chit to Neeshal and his firm Firestar Diamond which is based out of Belgium.
The report says that all transactions of Firestar Diamond BVBA were authentic, genuine and with legitimate documentary evidence such as invoices and shipping papers. The ED has rejected the forensic audit report and has raised a question on its authenticity.
Meanwhile, the sources have said that Neeshal Modi is trying to save himself and to do so Neeshal appointed an auditor who was paid by him. He is trying to self-certify himself. And that the forensic audit is not backed by any evidence and is based on the documents and ‘facts’ presented by Neeshal Modi himself.
Neeshal Modi is one of the prime accused and co-conspirator in the PNB scam along with Nirav Modi. He was a partner in the firm in India through which fraudulent LOUs (letters of undertaking) were obtained. He also was a beneficial owner of a few dummy entities and the recipient of LoUs in Dubai and Hong Kong.
Accordingly, he was made accused in the prosecution complaint filed in May 2018. The extradition request for Neeshal was sent to the UAE as it was initially suspected that he was in Dubai. Neeshal Modi is a Belgian citizen and Belgium does not extradite his citizens.
The sources also raised the question on the timing of the e-mail leak. Neeshal Modi appointed an auditor, paid him for the audit report, wrote an e-mail to ED 11 months ago and since then they have been trying to leak the mail.
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