From $82 Million Wedding To Bankruptcy, The Descent Of Lakshmi Mittal’s Brother

The flamboyant brother of one of India’s richest men, who made headlines worldwide after lavishing $82 million on his daughter’s wedding, has been declared bankrupt owing $160 million.

Pramod Mittal is understood to have lost vast amounts of money in a complex business deal in Bosnia that is being investigated for links to organized crime, reports The Times.

The news will come as an embarrassment to the Mittal family, but also underlines the divisions at its heart. It is telling that his older brother, Lakshmi Mittal, chairman and CEO of the world’s biggest steelmaker Arcelor Mittal, declined to bail him out again. Lakshmi, with a fortune of $7.4 billion, is ranked ninth in the Forbes list of richest Indians.

He could easily have helped his brother to avoid the negative headlines. It would not have been the first time. Last year Lakshmi paid off the majority of a $290 million debt Pramod’s business, Global Steel Holdings, owed to the State Trading Corporation in India. This enabled his relieved sibling to avoid criminal proceedings at the Supreme Court, prompting him to publicly praise his “generosity”, declaring: “I am very grateful to my brother Lakshmi”.

But yesterday Lakshmi declined to intervene at London’s Insolvency and Companies Court. A source told The Times: “They are no longer close and live separate lives. Lakshmi does not see why he should be financially responsible for his brother. This debt has nothing to do with him.”

The siblings fell out back in 1995 when Lakshmi defied his father Mohan Lal Mittal’s wishes to hive off the international division of the family steel business into a separate company.

Despite the two brothers living across Hyde Park from each other in London, they remain estranged. While this has mainly been played out behind closed doors, it burst onto the public consciousness with the one-upmanship around their daughters’ weddings.

Lakshmi is reported to have shelled out $60 million on a six-day Paris extravaganza for his daughter’s nuptials. The family flew in 1,000 guests by private jet for a dinner at the Palace of Versailles crafted by handpicked chefs from India. After the ceremony was held at a 17th-century chateau, Kylie Minogue was the star turn at the reception, performing a private concert against a backdrop of fireworks at the Eiffel Tower.

It would be going some to top that, but Pramod was game. No expense was spared as his daughter Shristi was married at the hilltop National Museum of Catalan Art in 2012, at a wallet-busting $82 million. After a stunning banquet prepared by Michelin starred chef Sergi Arola, the guests were treated to a spectacular light and water show to the tune of Chariots of Fire.

But all of that was a far cry from the more prosaic setting of a London courtroom yesterday.

The case that pushed Pramod Mittal into bankruptcy has been long-running. It stems from his acting as guarantor for the debts of a Bosnian metallurgical coke producer, Gikil, where he was president of its advisory board. When Gikil failed to repay a $166 million debt it owed to steel giant Stemcor in 2013, the company initiated proceedings against him. These debts were later taken over by a company called Moorgate Industries after Stemcor was restructured, and it was Moorgate that secured the bankruptcy order.

Lawyers Michael Swangard and Duncan Lockhart from Clyde & Co, which acted for Moorgate, told The Times: “Mr. Mittal’s bankruptcy represents a significant step forward for Moorgate in what has been a long and arduous process to recover significant monies owed to it by Mr. Mittal and several of his connected companies.”

Pramod is expected to appeal the decision, but could yet face further ignominy, with Bosnian authorities’ investigations into Gikil over suspected organized crime links ongoing. He was questioned by Bosnian prosecutors last year but denies any wrongdoing.