Banks Chase Cash Lost to Winsome Diamonds

(IDEX Online) - Banks that lost money in a $770m gold and diamonds loan scam in India in 2013 have won a legal victory in their bid to trace the missing cash.

A British judge yesterday restored four UK shell companies suspected of having laundered money lent to Indian-based Winsome Diamonds.

The move may enable Standard Chartered Bank and other lenders to trace the assets of an Indian gold and diamonds trader believed to have channeled the money to the UK via UAE largely through a series of derivatives contracts.

The banks accuse Winsome director Jatin Mehta of a "pre-meditated fraud", according to a report by the Law360 business newswire.

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been pursuing Mehta since 2013. Reports have suggested he may now be on the Caribbean island of St Kitts or in Montenegro.