

From an Indian jail, tycoon tries to sell the New York Plaza - dataminer
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/10/us-india-tycoon-idUSKBN0GA01H20140810

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piyushpr134
To give some background on this case. He was barred from entering into equity
markets in India as market regulator could not get a good idea of how he made
his money. Basically his business is taking money from un-organized retailers
on a daily basis and putting into some kind of investments to give them
returns. When he was barred he floated a sort of an IPO without getting market
in the picture. He issued debentures to millions when a private placement can
be made to maximum 50 people in this country. Any more and you have to go
public route. Therefore this issue was deemed illegal.

He raised more than 4.5 billion dollars in this exercise. He bought these
properties using the investor money. Sahara built a few luxury townships.

When matter went to courts, he was asked to return the money to investors. It
seems that so far he has returned a big chuck of it to investors. To get a
bail he has to deposit $1.6 billion with the market regulator as that is the
amount pending with investors.

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bushido
That bail amount is insane. It would make sense if someone told me that it was
a ploy to set a world record. It is a world record.

I am curious to know what parameters the court considered to set bail at this
high an amount.

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Alupis
Regardless of what he did, $1.6 Billion USD is insane. I'm sure whatever he
did, he deserved jail time, but that bail amount would be very hard to stick
here in the US (seems a lot like extortion to me).

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_delirium
Bail isn't a fee, but a security that you will return to court for trial: you
put up $n bail, which is forfeited only if you flee, and returned if you show
up for your court dates as promised. It's intended to make it more likely that
when you're let out of jail pending trial, you won't become a fugitive,
because you don't want to forfeit the bail.

But for that to be effective, the bail amount has to be a substantial portion
of your net worth, so that it would actually be painful to lose it. If someone
is worth billions and the bail is only $1m or something, they can just shrug
it off, so it would be ineffective at compelling appearance.

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Alupis
Hedge Fund executives, Enron executives, etc all have had less bail than this
guy,yet were worth considerable amounts. Also, a net worth isn't how much cash
he has laying around. How terrible would it be if all this occurred and they
found him not guilty? He would have liquidated his business for nothing. Still
seems unreasonable.

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ww520
Can he just stay in prison to wait for the trial? Why liquidate his portfolio
to pay for a temporary bail?

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chdir
This has nothing to do with hacker news. A corrupt businessman was unfortunate
to be on the receiving end and landed in jail for billions he probably owes to
millions of old gullible investors who lost their retirement income to his
Ponzi scheme. His arrest has little to do with justice, probably more of
political vendetta. How media salivates over such news & glorifies a thug :(

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neilunadkat12
$1.8b bail? Indian government gonna make a lot of money..

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kgrin
They only make money if he skips bail - otherwise, the bail money is returned
at the conclusion of the trial (even if he ultimately goes to prison).

Bail is just insurance against the accused fleeing (which is why it's set to
high for someone that wealthy - if it was a few million, he could afford to
just give it up).

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th3iedkid
and the government gets to keep the interest earned on the same over the time
i guess...

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BukhariH
No. It's a standard bond but the bond paper is held by the court.

When the court case comes to a conclusion, then you get your bond paper and
you keep any interest earned.

