Family emails say Lalit Modi owns ‘interest’ in 3 IPL teams, lawyer says that’s ‘guesswork’
The Indian Express has reviewed the emails whose trail begins on May 19, 2015, a month before his emails were first reported by the London-based The Sunday Times.
Ronald K Noble, Lalit ModiA draft trust deed in the form of a “letter agreement” included in a fresh set of emails purportedly linked to former IPL czar Lalit Modi refers to his alleged “beneficial interest” in three Indian Premier League (IPL) teams.
The Indian Express has reviewed the emails whose trail begins on May 19, 2015, a month before his emails were first reported by the London-based The Sunday Times.
Read: Modi, Interpol chief’s brother had real-estate ‘joint venture’
A May 19, 2015 email is from Australia-based attorney Dean Kino to Lalit Modi and Samir Modi. According to an attachment with this email: “Both Lalit and (brother) Samir have agreed on their need to establish their own business operations free of restrictions imposed by the settler of the K K Family Trust (named after father K K Modi)” and it continues, “Accordingly, Lalit and Samir hereby agree as follows”.
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Point 5 of this “agreement,” dated May 18, 2015, says: “They will jointly own the beneficial interest currently owned by Lalit in three IPL teams, provided, however that in the event Lalit and Samir agree not to jointly own the Acquired K K Trust Assets and instead, they separately take and hold their share of the acquired KK Trust Assets, then as soon as Samir receives his share of the Acquired K K Trust Assets, his interest in the IPL teams will be transferred back to Lalit.”
Neither Lalit nor Samir Modi responded to calls or text messages.
When contacted, Kino acknowledged the email and said: “I can confirm that I have worked on various legal matters involving Lalit Modi and members of his family. With respect to the particular draft document that you have referred to, the reference to the potential cricket interests of Lalit were based on guess work rather than facts, hence the draft nature of the document and the fact that there were numerous other drafts that referred to other potential sporting interests rather than IPL interests, including CPL and BBL teams and English Pub Darts teams, none of which I understood were owned by Lalit. Indeed, the concept your refer to would be impossible under what I understand are the IPL rules. Based on that, I can confirm that the documents reflected initial discussions and thoughts and nothing was ever finalized.”
However, this clause was referred to by Samir Modi in his May 19, 2015 mail to Kino: “Point 5: how will we own since this is not in the name of lkm (Lalit Kumar Modi). My understanding is that he is the ultimate beneficial owner.”
Also, another mail from Kino on May 24, 2015 refers to the IPL teams: “With respect to the money, as soon as the Trust stops taking care of you, the agreement says Lalit will take care of you and your family to the extent of the benefits you were getting or were entitled to get under the trust, until you get your 25% of the trust. Same deal for the IPL teams.”
The Enforcement Directorate is planning to approach Interpol and UK authorities for Modi’s deportation to India after a non-bailable warrant was issued against him for not appearing before the agency. The ED had asked Modi to join its money laundering probe into alleged irregularities in IPL contracts during 2007-2010 when he was chief of IPL.
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