Healthcare tycoon B R Shetty vows to bounce back from financial fiasco, says he was scapegoat

UDUPI: Healthcare tycoon Dr B R Shetty has reiterated that he will bounce back soon from the financial fiasco. Speaking to reporters here on Monday, he said that the loan he took from foreign banks will be repaid soon.

"I have no unpaid loan with banks in India, but whatever is borrowed from foreign banks will be repaid by me soon," he said. "The media launched a negative narrative against me as if I have become a pauper. But in reality my economic status has not deteriorated so much like how it is depicted in the media," he said.

He was in Udupi to participate in a programme to commemorate the birth of the 10,000th baby in the Government of Karnataka - Koosamma Shambhu Shetty Memorial Haji Abdullah Mother and Child Hospital that was started here in 2018 as his philanthropic vision. The hospital was constructed at a cost of Rs 120 crore under the PPP model.

Shetty who stayed away from the media for several months came forward to talk to reporters on Monday and said he has not run away from the problem. "My empire has collapsed and that is true. But I am not the reason for it alone. I am a scapegoat," he said. "I trusted somebody and made a person who was an accountant as CFO. He backstabbed me and engaged in financial fraud. I was not aware of that fraud. The matter is sub judice now. So I will not speak on it much," he said.

Dr Shetty cited the example of Donald Trump who struggled to get a credit card from banks. But he went on to become the President of the United States of America. "I too will bounce back and earn what I have lost. The social services work done through my trust will continue. I have already donated half of my properties to the Melinda Gates Foundation. But today I am ashamed to go in front of PM Narendra Modi as my situation is not good," he said emotionally.