NRI ordered to repay £30 mn for trans-Atlantic faud

Virendra Rastogi conned banks into pouring more than 1 billion pounds into what they believed was a global business empire.

Indian-origin Virendra Rastogi,serving nine-and-a-half-year jail sentence in the UK for a trans-Atlantic fraud has been ordered to pay back 30 million pounds within six months by a court to compensate victims.

41-year-old Rastogi conned banks into pouring more than 1 billion pounds into what they believed was a global business empire.

But the money went to a network of sham companies,whose registered offices included a cow shed in India and a laundrette in the US.

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Rastogi,of Mayfair in London,is serving a nine and a half year jail sentence for conspiracy to defraud.

A judge at Southwark Crown Court here ruled Rastogi has 30 million pounds in realisable assets. The money will be used to compensate the victims of the fraud.

“The defendant is a very intelligent and able man” who,for much of his adult life,”has had absolutely no regard for truth or honesty,” Judge James Wadsworth said in his order,according to the SFO (Serious Fraud Office).

“The defendant accepts that the whole of his business success was based on deceit.”

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Antony Brown,Rastogi’s lawyer,said his client “absolutely does not have 30 million pounds” and is considering whether to appeal the order.

“Our client has had to account for one billion pounds,and the judge has decided that 30 million remains unaccounted for,” Brown was quoted as saying by a local media report.

“We need to spend a little time considering it.” Rastogi was sentenced to prison in 2008 for the fraud,which expanded from New York to London in 1996. It eventually grew to involve more than 200 companies across six jurisdictions.