In 2015, a year before Vijay Mallya resigned as a Rajya Sabha member following probes into his firms by different agencies, he used his status as a “member of the Upper House” to open accounts in a Swiss bank.
The CBI found this in response to requests by Indian courts sent to Swiss authorities for information on certain bank accounts to which Mallya had transferred loan funds in violation of agreements with IDBI and SBI.
The bank Edmond De Rothschild said an account in Mallya’s name was opened with it in November 2015. In Customer Confidential Data the concerned officer of the bank had also mentioned three other accounts associated with Mallya.
According to the charge sheet, the confidential data said: “The form also states the client (Mallya) is not a professional politician or member of any political party. He is (at the time of opening of account) a member of the Upper House of Parliament in India.”
Regarding another account in the name of Ladywalk Investments, opened in June 2015, the data stated that it was opened to “provide margins for mortgage of property known as Ladywalk near London”. At the time of filing of the charge sheet, Mallya was living at the said property.
