B.R. Shetty: The corporate Icarus whose vast empire sank into the UAE's sands

This is the story of Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty and many other tycoons like him. It is a narrative so repetitive it almost defies retelling: Modest beginnings and entrepreneurial zeal leading to a vertical ascent of fame and fortune. But once at the top, the urge to grab one more billion or one more trophy asset becomes a compulsion. What follows is the inevitable fall, followed by the worms creeping out, revealing the rot within.

And always, in the aftermath, there is the regret of what might have been had the protagonist stuck to the right path.

Shetty’s story is a perfect example.

Modest beginnings

Born in 1942 in Udupi to a father who was a politician and freedom fighter, the young man failed to secure a stable government job despite his pharmaceutical studies at the Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Desperate for work and drowning in debt from his sister’s wedding, he left for Abu Dhabi in 1973 with little more than eight dirhams and oodles of ambition.

From those humble beginnings, he worked hard and smart to set himself up as the UAE’s first outdoor medical representative in a land just beginning to smell of opportunity.

By 1975, he opened New Medical Centre (NMC), a small local clinic where his wife, Dr. Chandrakumari, was the only physician. Shetty had seen what others didn’t: A massive expatriate workforce with no affordable healthcare. He went on to build a hospital chain, in addition to diversifying into a range of other services. In 1980, he acquired UAE Exchange, transforming the simple act of sending money home into a multibillion-dollar business.

Vertical ascent

For four decades, the trajectory was purely vertical. NMC became an FTSE 100 giant as Shetty also acquired Travelex for $1.1 billion. By this time, he owned two floors of the Burj Khalifa, a fleet of vintage cars, and shared a private Gulfstream IV-SP for his global commutes. In 2009, he became the Padma Shri tycoon, the man who promised a ₹1,000 crore Mahabharata film, though that failed to come through.

The “so far so good" moment ended on 17 December 2019. Muddy Waters Research, a short-seller firm known for calling out companies, released a report that was an autopsy of the business. It alleged that NMC had inflated cash balances, overpaid for assets to line insider pockets, and, most crucially, was sitting on a mountain of undisclosed debt.

Inevitable fall

Within months, the reported debt of $2.1 billion ballooned to a staggering $6.6 billion while billions simply vanished into a complex web of forged documents and unauthorized board approvals. By April 2020, NMC, the crown jewel of Gulf healthcare, was in administration. Finablr, Shetty’s financial business, followed, eventually being sold for a nominal $1.

As the empire crashed around him, Shetty played the victim, claiming rogue executives had forged his signature while he was distracted by philanthropy. But the courts in 2025 weren’t kind to the 83-year-old. In October 2025, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Court ordered Shetty to pay $46 million to State Bank of India.

The judge didn't mince words, describing Shetty’s testimony as an “incredible parade of lies". The tycoon’s defence was truly bizarre: He claimed his employees held “competitions" to see who could best forge his signature. The judge countered with photographs, meeting notes, and emails showing Shetty was very much in the room when the deals were inked.

Can of worms

Once open, the can of worms stayed open. In December 2025, the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) Court cleared the way for administrators to dig into internal bank records from Bank of Baroda, searching for “suspicious transaction reports" that were previously hidden by banking secrecy.

Today, B.R. Shetty is a billionaire only in the ledger of his liabilities. His assets are frozen, his reputation is in tatters in the international finance sector, and his legal battles span from London to Abu Dhabi to India. The man who once scaled the top of the peak is learning a brutal lesson in corporate gravity: The higher you jump from the peak, the longer it takes to hit the bottom.

For more such stories, read The Enterprising Indian: Stories From India Inc News.