Mumbai: The National Company Law Tribunal, on July 24, dissolved the completely liquidated company, Cox & Kings Financial Service Limited, thereby directing the Resolution Professional (RP) to inform the Registrar of Companies (ROC) about the same. The RP in his application submitted before the Tribunal mentioned that the bank account of the liquidated company had been closed, thus demonstrating bank account statements, which read that the balance amount as of January 31, 2024, was Rs 0.00.
Pradeep Kumar Sethi, was the officially appointed RP for the company. Accordingly, as a procedure, Sethi called for the creditors, and a Committee of Creditors (CoC) was created. The CoC, on April 4, 2022, had approved the resolution for liquidation of the company, which was thereby accepted by the Tribunal via an interlocutory application.
Further, Sethi, as per the procedure, had invited for the claims from the stake holders, and it was then decided by the Stakeholders Consultation Committee (SCC) to proceed with the sale of the assets of the company on “assets on a standalone basis” as per Regulation of the Liquidation Regulations, 2016.
After selling off all the assets of the company, the RP filed an application before the tribunal that read, “Since all the assets of the corporate debtor have been sold, hence, the present interlocutory application is filed seeking dissolution of the company.”
Meanwhile, in a fraud case, allegedly committed by Cox and Kings Financial Services Ltd. (CKFSL), which had defrauded Yes Bank of approximately ₹400 crore., the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) had arrested Ajit Menon, a British citizen, who was apprehended at the Kerala airport on April 9 upon his arrival from the United Kingdom. A Look Out Circular (LoC) had been issued against him. He was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in connection with the case and transported to Mumbai.
According to an EOW, even though Menon was designated as the managing director of the company under Kerkar's instructions, his appointment wasn't documented. The EOW’s FIR implicated Kerkar, his wife Urshila Kerkar, and others based on a complaint filed by Ashish Vinod Joshi, the chief vigilance officer of Yes Bank.
As per the FIR, the accused individuals had allegedly fabricated purchase and sales transactions in the company's account books from 2018 to 2019, falsely portraying the company's financial health as robust. This further enabled them to allegedly secure a Rs 400 crore loan from Yes Bank between September 7, 2018, and November 1, 2019. It is alleged that a significant portion of the loan funds were redirected to Cox & Kings Ltd. for their own gain, as stated by Joshi, the complainant, in the FIR.
The liquidated company had allegedly provided misleading financial statements to bolster its creditworthiness, misused loan funds for purposes other than intended, and ignored terms set by Yes Bank. It is also alleged that the company allegedly manipulated balance sheets and breached the bank's trust, resulting in an alleged loss of Rs 398.38 crore.
