Vijay Mallya becomes first Indian business tycoon to be named “Fugitive Economic Offender (FEO)”

Former liquor baron Vijay Mallya has become the first Indian businessman to be declared a Fugitive Economic Offender (FEO) under the newly enacted Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018 by the Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai. The tag now allows the government to confiscate and sold his properties in alleged Rs. 9,000 crore loan default case in India. According to the new law, a FEO is a person against whom an arrest warrant has been issued for his or her involvement in economic offences involving at least Rs. 100 crore or more and has left India to avoid prosecution. Mallya has been accused of defaulting on loan repayments and money laundering and had left India in March 2016. Mallya currently facing extradition from the United Kingdom after a Westminster Magistrates Court in London ordered his return to India to face fraud charges resulting from the collapse of his defunct Kingfisher Airlines. However, the ruling has been challenged in the High Court in the UK.