Vijay Mallya responded to the reports of his arrest with the following Tweet: “Usual Indian media hype. Extradition hearing in Court started today as expected”.
The Metropolitan Police, however, did issue a statement as follows:
“Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Extradition Unit have this morning, Tuesday 18 April, arrested a man on an extradition warrant,” it said. “Vijay Mallya, 61 (18/12/1955), was arrested on behalf of the Indian authorities in relation to accusations of fraud. He was arrested after attending a central London police station, and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court later today, 18 April”.
So Vijay Mallya was arrested this morning. There was no police chase, nor a raid on his house, nonetheless he was place under arrest.
So where’s the hype in that?
joeblogsf1 
Let’s hope he gets out and his allegations are false for sake of our beloved Force India F1 Racing
OK, so it’s all ok to do bad things if you own a Formula 1 team? That is what I call warped.
He is not proven guilty just yet. And he denies guilt. We shall wait and see what the judge says.
No-one says he is guilty, but the law will find out one way or the other.
Really?????
I’m sure you wouldn’t be saying that if you were one of the workers for Kingfisher Airlines or one of his other companies who didn’t get paid and have in some cases lost their pensions. I hope he faces the full force of the law.
It isn’t good for F1 to have a team where one owner is in Jail and the other arrested for fraud and money laundering.
Obviously it is not good for F1. But what is anyone doing about it?
So should say that in the face of hundereds of former Kingfisher employees, whom still are waiting for money!
Remember the last GP of India?
How they threaten to do ‘nasty stuff’ during the race? Come on! Mallya held one after the other party, while these ex-employees lost everything!
What is it between you and Vijay that irks you so ?
I am reporting on what happens. The rest is in your head.
Agreed and two thumbs up Joe for not being afraid to a stand ! Suffice it to say in this era of alt facts , fake news , cognitive dissonance and celebrity addled “Cult of Personality ” worship taking a stand for what is right is becoming rarer by the minute . My hats off .. and as you Brits would say Hear Hear good sir
Nonsense. It’s obvious to all and sundry that you despise the man. Which is entirely your prerogative, but please don’t insult the intelligence of your readers by pretending otherwise.
It is not nonsense. If you wish to whinge about, whinge to yourself and don’t waste my time and energy
VJ was mean to Joe in one of their interactions few years back, since then Joe has been in an all out attack mode on VJ since years. Force India should have been sold or bankrupted five or more years ago if you believed the hype on these pages, just search and read the “Mallya” topic on this blog and you will get the whole picture.
Rubbish. It has nothing to do with any interactios we have had. If you bother to read the blog carefully you will see that I have praised the team (and the strategy behind it) on several occasions. It is just too easy for ignorant people like you to write such tosh. Don’t bother again.
“Rubbish” , “nonsense” , “whinging” , “ignorant people like you” , “don’t bother me again” – I know it’s your “blog your rules” Mr Saward but what happened to being courteous in your responses ?
You get what you give. If you are less than polite I see no reason to be sweet back. Get really rude and you get kicked out. Be polite and your life is perfect,
Joe is neutral to a point, and that point is based on honesty and ethics. VM has been hiding out in England for years, avoiding going back to India to face the music. The tune the music is playing has pretty much got him dead to rights. He borrowed money and never paid it back. Someone who is casting a blemish in the name of F1, is not a friend of anyone who loves the sport. Why would anyone defend the creep/thief? Additionally, if he’s innocent, why doesn’t he go to India and clear his name? Reason:they have him dead to rights.
By that measure Bernie should have been gone a long time ago. Along with a host of other unsavoury characters that have been in the orbit of F1 over the years. Singling out VJM for his off-track antics is somewhat disingenuous.
In the long run, would the courts in India be able to confiscate Force India as an asset of VM? Is the team’s ownership based in England, or India?
I doubt it
I might be wrong here Joe but didn’t you report a while back about Mallya having taken a sizeable loan against the team which is why he puts such a high price on the it for any interested buyers and might explain why recent suitors have all backed out.
No, I don’t think I reported that, but the team’s holding company has certainly borrowed a lot of money over time. As this is all hidden away in offshore companies, it is hard to know for sure.
There are two Force India companies registered in the UK (Force India Formula One Team Limited and Force India Formula One Limited). Of these, only Force India Formula One Team Limited has any charges registered against it (some account charges in favour of Investec, presumably in support of a credit facility of some kind). So if there is debt, as Joe says it is probably higher up in the group (probably Orange India Holdings SARL,. the Luxembourg co which holds the majority of the shares in that company).
..probably doesn’t have any trouble sleeping at night
Word is he’s now been bailed…
I am sure he has
Slightly ironic when Hype are one of the team sponsors 🙂
I think Mallya was trying to promote Hype energy drink in his time of adversity, just like Bernie Eccelstone did with Hublot.
No, that was hubris
How did he respond on twitter if he was arrested? They take everything off you as your being booked in??
He was bailed…
Thanks for replying I did see that he was bailed after I wrote the comment after a fair bit of digging after the ‘other piece of news’ today.
I was recently offered a very well paid position as a ‘ social media officer’ for a CEO with questionable grammar , a dislike of technology and eccentric opinions. People in his position are not necessarily composing their own tweets or other social media posts.
Lol. You’re really not a fan of him, huh? All big business men do bad things, some just have better PR people covering their image.
No they do not. Some are successful without hurting other people. However, I accept that Mallya’s PR is not very good.
Maybe some are, but a lot are ruthless and do whatever it takes regardless of who gets hurt. But, yes, his PR really is bad.
The hyperbole was in the Indian media – the Scotland Yard statement was factually accurate, but not what Mallya was talking about.
I saw no hyperbole in the Indian media. It is very old-fashioned and reports in the old style.
What he has done is a big deal for those affected in India. Accordingly, any development related to him being brought to task is always going to be projected as a big deal in India, just as it was this type around (rightly so, I say). Just look at any leading news website or publication and this news was very much front and centre. So Mallaya’s remark about the hype in Indian media was quite accurate.
Lastly, re. your comment above “I am reporting on what happens. The rest is in your head.”, while I don’t believe you have a hidden agenda against him, your coverage on this topic appears to be more than just factual reporting and carries an obvious bias aligned with your opinion of him (which is perfectly fine, because this isn’t a news website, it’s YOUR blog!).
P. S. I don’t like the guy (or what he has done) myself so I’m not complaining.
You’re wrong. End of story.
Where is the hype? What has the Indian media said?
It has said that Vijay Mallya was placed under arrest. This is true.
He’s under ‘country’ arrest…he can’t leave the UK. Poor bloke, nobody deserves that.
It is self-imposed. If he declared that he would go home to India, I am sure he would be ushered to the airport without undue trouble
It’s all a bit reminiscent of Julian Assange being, according to some, “held prisoner” in the Ecuadorean embassy.
No, it’s not.
Speculating while gazing into the future a bit here but what happens to the team if both owners are in an Indian prison for 10yrs or however long? Surely the assets of both will be seized in an attempt to settle the outstanding debts and the F1 team will be quite a valuable asset. A forced sale? Someone might nab a bargain…
Obvious in’it. He’s Indian and he’s hyping !
The man’s a rogue like his compatriot. Why is it Formula 1 attracts so many of this ilk ? Can’t be good for F1 and can’t be attractive for legitimate business. In my opinion the same applied to the dear departed who recently popped out of the woodwork with some unhelpful comments. When the whole thing gets back onto a more even keel maybe more promotional funding will come in.
I’ve thought for many years, that the murky finances of F1 are what attracts spivs and chancers. It has been that way since motorsport was invented, or at least it has to a degree. However, the way Bernie piled cash up in the series has made it a financially polluted environment. Many sports are the same now. A reasonable amount of money in a sport is ok, when the cash stakes get astronomical that’s when the crooks move in, and money starts whirling around in such ways that no one can trace what is actually going on.It is sad but one sees this in all types of sport, and obviously, in banking and the corporate world as well. Hard to say how to prevent it, other than to have open Books and Contracts, and to drive down the costs of competing so that it isn’t attractive to criminals in suits.
Joe,
He turned up at the Police station as previously agreed and they arrested him and then bailed him to reappear in May. Now we will see if the India Government does have the goods on him and an UK court agrees with it. He keeps on saying it is all made up, like Trump and all his fake news claims. I wonder how long this will run or whether it will be re-arrested and put on a plane back to India on the 17th May at his hearing. This is what they do to people in the UK who overstay their visa, why should he be any different.
Also, who is sponsoring him to stay in this country and pay his bills? That will be interesting to know if it comes out in the second hearing. Remember all of his known accounts are frozen and he is not allowed to work in the UK. If he brings funds into the UK, then our taxman would like a slice of that – thank you very much. They would also exchange data with their colleges in India.
He obviously does not need to be sponsored, so one must suppose that he has plenty of money to spend. I am sure the Indians will want to know the answer to that question as well.
Disgraced as he was caught before he could die. It went the other way for Colin Chapman,
I just hope this fraudster gets extradited and made to pay up or sent to prison.
I think you need to use the word ‘alleged’ in this sentence.
Some of the reports in Indian media were a bit hysterical. Lots of use of the word ‘Crore’ in relation to the sums allegedly owed. I had to look it up: a crore is 10 million.
He’s was referring to hype in the Indian media – what has the Met Police’s statement got to do with that? Very odd blog post.
No, he was referring to the reports of his arrest. He was arrested. End of story. He may have been invited to go to the police, but he was arrested nonetheless. Thus it is not hype to say that he was arrested.
Reports of his arrest in the Indian media. Which may well have contained some extra hype? Having not read them, I wouldn’t know.
I have
The hype was his, in his statement ‘as expected’.
What he meant was, not if I can jolly well help it……..
He couldn’t.
End of the road appears closer for the ex self proclaimed “King of Good Times. ” Joe taking into account 4th place in constructors championship, technology and facilities, sponsorship money, Mercedes-Benz engines, and the biggie FOM prize money would it be safe to say Force India is worth a third to half of what us being asked by Mallya? Team seems like a better value at 90-150 mil than Manor at 35-40 mil for a team in 11th place. All these numbers based on reading your blog.