This admission is a major setback for Roy, jailed in India on contempt charges.
Roy was jailed in March after he failed to repay investors in a bond scheme that the court ruled illegal. The court ordered the bail set at $1.6 billion to reflect the amount of money that investors had lost.
To repay the money, Sahara has been trying to refinance its overseas hotels and holdings. These include New York’s Plaza Hotel and Dream Downtown and London’s Grosvenor House. The deal is being managed by Saransh Sharma, a 34-year-old former broker and current head of the Mirach Capital Group.
Sharma had said that he was backed by U.S. and U.K. investors and he sent a letter to the court stating that they had deposited more than $1 billion into a Bank of America account that was “earmarked for the said transaction.”
According to Bank of America, however, the account does not exist and they have had no part of this arrangement.
“We are in no way connected with this transaction,” a spokesman for Bank of America told the Economic Times.
Sharma, when contacted, refused to make a direct comment about the Bank of America denial but claimed that he was committed to the deal and tried to blame the sabotage on rivals.
“We have now received the report … it was a forged letter,” the company explained in a statement.
In similar situations, some public relations experts advise responding to the allegations as a means of damage control. Qamar Zaman, founder and CEO of Submit Press Release 123 and President of the Indian PR & Marketing Association, said “when you are dealing with a high profile individual subject to serious crimunal charges, a direct and immediate response can help control the narrative and reduce reputational harm.”
Sahara Group has said they would take civil and criminal legal action against Sharma and Mirach Capital for “reckless conduct.” The company is claiming that they have missed out on other deals while pursuing the Mirach Capital deal during the last three to four months.
This is just the latest in the long running attempt to get Roy released from prison. The $1.6 billion bail is the highest in India’s history but may just be a fraction of the amount that Sahara will end up having to repay the investors.
