The Abu Dhabi Global Market Court of First Instance ruled on November 5 that Dr BR Shetty, founder of NMC Healthcare, and Prasanth Manghat, the company's former chief executive, were liable for fraudulent and wrongful trading carried out between April 2, 2012, and April 9, 2020.

Shetty built NMC from a single clinic in 1975 into the UAE's largest privately owned healthcare provider. At its peak in 2018, the company was valued at £8.58 billion ($10.5 billion) and employed thousands of staff across the region. NMC listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2012, but collapsed into administration in April 2020 after short-seller Muddy Waters published a report in December 2019 alleging inflated assets and understated debt.

The court set $5.39 billion as the starting point for calculating the defendants' financial liability, though it stressed this figure is not a final award. The investigation separately uncovered $4.4 billion in previously unreported debt. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has already secured $1.19 billion in damages plus roughly $169 million in lost profits from Manghat as part of related proceedings.

Judges found that Shetty "dishonestly participated in the fraud throughout the relevant period," including receiving improper fund transfers, using those funds to acquire assets, and concealing borrowings from auditor Ernst & Young, which allowed misleading financial statements to be issued to investors and lenders.

A further hearing has been scheduled to determine the final financial and legal consequences of the ruling, including how liability will be apportioned between the two men. The case remains one of the largest corporate fraud rulings in the UAE's history.