BR Shetty

Introduction

Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty — known as BR Shetty — is the Indian-born founder of NMC Healthcare, the hospital group he built from a single 1975 Abu Dhabi clinic into the UAE’s largest privately owned healthcare operator and a London-listed company once valued at $10.5 billion. On November 5, 2026, the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) Court of First Instance found Shetty and NMC’s former chief executive Prasanth Manghat liable for fraudulent trading and wrongful trading, ruling that both men “dishonestly participated in the fraud against the NMC Group” over a period spanning 2012 to 2020 — the fraud that brought down one of the UAE’s biggest corporate names. The judgment identifies $5.39 billion as the starting point for determining the financial contributions Shetty and Manghat must make to NMC’s creditors, though that figure is not a final award and both men can appeal.

Background Information

Shetty founded NMC Healthcare in 1975, and the business grew from a single clinic into the UAE’s largest private healthcare group, employing thousands of people. The company listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2012 and peaked in 2018 at a valuation of £8.58 billion ($10.5 billion). The crash began in December 2019, when short seller Muddy Waters published a report alleging NMC had inflated the value of its assets and understated its debt. An independent investigation subsequently uncovered more than $4.4 billion of previously unreported debt, and the company was placed into administration in April 2020. A restructuring completed in 2022 allowed 34 NMC companies to exit administration as subsidiaries of a new group; the operating companies that trade today as NMC Healthcare are not implicated in the fraud case.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Found liable for fraudulent trading in the NMC collapse. On November 5, 2026, Justice Sir Andrew Smith of the ADGM Court of First Instance’s Commercial and Civil Division held Shetty and former CEO Prasanth Manghat liable for fraudulent and wrongful trading committed between April 2, 2012 and April 9, 2020, finding both men “dishonestly participated in the fraud against the NMC Group.” The court identified $5.39 billion as the starting point for their financial contributions to NMC’s assets — a reimbursement baseline, not a final award — and scheduled a further hearing to resolve outstanding matters.

The court found that Shetty dishonestly participated in the fraud throughout the relevant period. Among its findings: he knowingly received substantial amounts of money improperly transferred from the NMC Group and used some of those funds to acquire assets; he failed to disclose securities linked to his personal financial facilities; he allowed misleading financial statements to be published; and he helped conceal the group’s borrowings from auditors Ernst & Young. The court found Manghat knowingly enabled the unlawful transfer of NMC funds for the benefit of Shetty, himself and others. The case concerned the movement of large amounts of money out of the NMC Group — misappropriating its assets while hiding the true state of its finances through undisclosed borrowings and misleading statements that made the group’s financial position appear different from reality.

The judgment came in a case brought by Alvarez & Marsal, NMC’s administrator, after a four-month trial that began in March 2026. The ruling also favoured Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, NMC’s biggest lender, in a separate case against Manghat: the court found the bank established claims under the UAE Civil Code and Commercial Companies Law, with recoverable damages including $1.02 billion for outstanding liabilities and approximately $168.98 million for lost profits, subject to adjustments.

Public Reaction and Consequences

For NMC’s creditors, the judgment marks what the court called an important step toward determining the financial responsibility of those who participated in the fraud. Richard Fleming, joint administrator of NMC Health and a managing director at Alvarez & Marsal, said: “Since our appointment, we have investigated the circumstances surrounding NMC’s collapse and pursued those responsible. [The] judgment is a vindication of those efforts, and we remain committed to pursuing every available avenue in recovering funds for those who suffered losses.” The ruling closed a six-year arc that began with the Muddy Waters report — itself a public short-seller allegation — and ended with a court finding that the company’s founder and CEO had dishonestly run one of the FTSE 100’s largest healthcare names while it was, in substance, balance-sheet insolvent.

Current Status

Shetty and Manghat are found liable on all counts but owe no finalized sum yet: the court directed a further hearing to resolve the financial and other consequences of its findings, and both men retain the right to appeal. The $5.39 billion figure is the starting point for the fraudulent-trading contribution calculation, and the ADCB damages of roughly $1.19 billion against Manghat remain subject to adjustments. The operating NMC Healthcare business continues trading under new ownership and leadership, unimplicated by the judgment.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Shetty’s story went from celebrated founder — a shoemaker’s son whose clinic group became the Gulf’s largest private healthcare operator and earned him a spot among the region’s best-known tycoons — to a court finding that he dishonestly participated in an eight-year fraud that erased $10.5 billion of listed value and left more than $4.4 billion in hidden debt. The November 2026 judgment attaches his name permanently to fraudulent and wrongful trading, puts a nine-figure-to-billion-scale contribution determination ahead of him, and converts the administrator’s recovery campaign into a personal financial liability case that will define the rest of his business legacy.

Sources

• The National, “Abu Dhabi court finds NMC Healthcare founder Dr BR Shetty liable in case involving $5.39bn.” source