PNB scam: Meet Firestar's Vipul Ambani, simple CFO in a complex setting
Three
days ago when 48-year-old Vipul Ambani, chief financial officer (CFO)
for Firestar International,
was arrested by the Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
in connection with the Nirav Modi-Punjab
National Bank fraud
case, it sent ripples through corporate circles in Mumbai.On the face
of it, Ambani had always seemed to be an unusual choice as CFO
for Firestar Diamonds.
For
starters, he had no experience in the jewellery trade, but what took
his friends and colleagues by surprise was why he would need to work
for anyone but himself or his relatives, given his last name and
background.
After
all, he’s one of the two sons of Natubhai Ambani, younger brother
to Reliance patriarch Dhirubhai Ambani, and first cousin to India’s
richest man, Mukesh Ambani. In fact, in an earlier stint, between
1991 and 1994, he was even executive assistant to the then managing
director of Reliance Industries.CBI officials who have been
interrogating him, told a special court that Ambani was aware of the
fraudulent and illegal letters of undertaking (LoUs) issued by Punjab
National Bank in
the Rs 114-billion fraud.
CBI
has also alleged that the LoUs were being made in Firestar premises
and that there were “deliberate acts of omission by him by not
protesting the issuance of such fraudulent LoUs”. This charge would
now dispel any notion that, as some of his well-wishers believed,
Ambani had been taken in by Nirav Modi’s chicanery, and was unaware
of what was going on.
But
these are still charges and CBI would need to prove them with
evidence.Ambani, who lives on Altamount Road, a preferred address for
India’s super-rich, grew up in south Mumbai, and like the children
of many industrial families attended the Cathedral & John Connon
School.
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