Nirav Modi Biography 
Nirav Modi is a business typhoon and executive who established global diamond jewelry house with his name. This Indian entrepreneur was the first Indian jeweler to have been featured on the covers of Christie’s and Sotheby’s Catalogues. But in February 2018, Nirav Modi found his place in headlines of newspapers, channels and news portals when his name was linked to $44 million fraud case at Punjab National Bank (PNB). The investigation reports found him guilty and soon after the outbreak of the news, he left the country along with his family. Punjab National Bank Fraud Case of 2018 which took place at a branch at Mumbai relates to alleged fraudulent Letter of Undertaking worth ₹11,600 crore (USD 1.77 billion dollars), which is biggest reported case ever in Indian banking industry.
Modi was born to a jeweler Deepak Keshavlal Modi. Modi grew up in Belgium. His younger brother Neeshal is married to Isheta Salgaocar, niece of Ambani brothers. Nirav dropped out of The Wharton School, USA and moved to India where he got trained in the diamond trade under his uncle. He founded Firestar (formerly known as Firestone), a diamond sourcing and trading company in the 1999, thus entering business arena. Firestar is the sole distributor in India for Argyle pink diamonds. It was only in 2008 he could identify his flare and passion for jewelry especially diamonds.
He launched his own Nirav Modi brand with 16 stores in different locations and turned a successful jeweller in a very short interval of time. His interest in art and design began at a young age by visiting various museums in Europe. His brand flourished and he set up stores in India and abroad in some of the big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, New York, Hong Kong, London and Macau. Currently Priyanka Chopra is the brand ambassador of his brand. In 2013, Mr. Nirav Modi was featured on the Forbes list of Indian billionaires and since then he stayed in the list.
In February 2018, CBI launched an investigation on Modi, which alleges Modi and his partners defrauded the bank for 280 Crore rupees by conspired with bank officials to fraudulently obtain Letters of Undertaking for making payments to overseas suppliers.
Published: N/A
Updated: February 18, 2018
