How much are you missing IPL 2020? Due to COVID, all our plans have flopped, but the worst is the cancellation of IPL. Indian Premier League is like a festival of India uniting everyone with a religion called, CRICKET. But are you aware of the name behind the massive success of IPL and Champions League? Yes, he is one of the famous visionaries with greatest risk-taking capacity, Mr Lalit Modi. In this blog, we will discuss the Lalit Modi IPL Scam in detail.
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In this blog, we will be discussing the great journey of Modi from his award-winning days to being a fugitive businessman of India.
Early Life & Education
Lalit Modi was born as the elder son of Krishan Kumar Modi in Delhi in 1963. KK Modi expanded his family business eventually forming a joint venture of Modi Entreprises and Philip Morris International, called Godfrey Philips India. It is one of the biggest tobacco company having products like, Marlboro, Red & White, Foursquare, Pan Vilas, 24*7 Retail chain stores etc. Lalit Modi was sent to Shimla and then Nainital for his education. He was expelled from St. Joseph’s for truancy as he left school to watch a movie. (Highly risk-taking since birth). Later on, he went to Pace University in New York for 2 years and Duke University in North Carolina for Electrical Engineering & Business Administration but completed none. In 1985, Modi and his friends were arrested on charges of conspiracy to traffic cocaine assault & second-degree kidnapping. Modi accepted his mistake in front of the court and was punished with 2 years in prison. He plea-bargained in court and was then punished with 5 years probation and 100 hours of humanity services. (This guy always leaves us amazed)
His Visions and Transformation of cricket
Upon returning to India, he joined his family business and took the position of Executive Director and then Managing Director and President of the company till 2010. Modi then started his own business Modi Entertainment Network with the money from the family trust. MEN tied with International Entertainment Channels like Disney and different sports channels to become their distributor for 10 years. After the passing of 10 years, most of the channels were not interested in continuing their business with Modi due to his lack of transparency. MEN was therefore not much profitable. That’s when this entrepreneur thought that the craziness Indians have towards cricket can be used to make a lot of Money ey in the same way as different sports league in the USA did.
Modi gave this idea of hiring players, making private teams and earning profit to BCCI, which at that point of time was not impressed by the idea. After being rejected, he made one goal for himself: Gaining a position in BCCI. And he did that, by joining Punjab Cricket Association as Vice President in 2004. After being promoted as President in Rajasthan Cricket Association eventually got himself into BCCI in 2005 as Vice President. Position of VP was good enough to approve the idea of IPL. As Vice President, Modi gained Board Member’s trust by his intelligence and money-making abilities. He changed several rules of advertisements which helped in growing BCCI’s profit by a huge amount. The idea of IPL was finally approved as Board Members had greater faith in Modi’s talent.
Modi’s vision and his wish to touch the sky, made him convince Ambani and Mallya to invest in this new idea of IPL, which did not even have a guarantee of success. But IPL became a huge success in its first season only. Modi started using his position to make those deals which could benefit his family, friends and relative. One of such acts was lowering Franchise Cost of Rajasthan Royal so that his brother in law Suresh Chellaram can get majority stakes in it. BCCI was earning like never before.
Lalit Modi started working on the idea of Champions’ League, which was going to be like a football league, where, different countries top team formed a league to compete. So yes, Modi is also the king of Champions League. But everything was going to change forever very soon.
And The Trouble Began
Kochi Tuskers Kerala’s bid was won by Rendezvous Sports World whose co-owner was Sunanda Pushkar who was a close friend of Minister of External Affairs Mr Shashi Tharoor and later became his wife. This deal was a secret which was disclosed by Modi by his tweet. Tharoor was highly criticised to used his power for this deal, and three show causes were sent to Modi who was accused of breaching confidentiality agreements. Tharoor resigned from his post soon after. Modi was removed from chairman position of IPL and also from Vice President of BCCI. BCCI also pressed 22 charges on Modi which included Money Laundering, using broadcast deal for personal benefits, selling IPL franchise to family members, providing benefit to family and friends.
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The List
Enforcement Directorate investigated the whole matter to discover that money gained through the frauds were used to buy different properties in the name of Lalit Modi outside India. Mosi also formed different legal companies to convert his black money in white.
In 2008, BCCI gave media rights to World Sports Groups (WSG) which then made Sony the official broadcaster of IPL. Sony gave 425Cr. to WSG as felicitation charges and mentioned nothing. Deeper investigation revealed that a portion of the money paid to WSG was transferred to one of the companies which Lalit Modi formed.
For IPL 2009, Cricket South Africa was paid 243 Cr. by BCCI as it was going to be held in South Africa. BCCI required permission of RBI but instead of that different identities were formed for the transfer.
From Game Changer to Fugitive Businessman
Lalit Modi with Naomi Campbell in Havana, Cuba
All these events simply meant that Modi was in grave danger. Knowing his future (as he already is a great visionary) he left India and escaped to London, and none of the warrants could get him back to India. In 2015, a non-bailable warrant for money laundering was passed. Due to which his passport was cancelled, and he was not allowed to travel outside the UK.
When her wife was suffering from cancer, he pleads to the Government to allow him to visit his wife in Portugal. Sushma Swaraj (Former Minister of External Affairs India) asked the British Government to go by the law of the land and Modi was then allowed to travel. (He is using this opportunity as add on to his unaffected luxurious life).
Sushma Swaraj was also condemned for her decision as Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of Sushma Swaraj was one of the nine lawyers representing Modi.
BAN 2013
Arun Jaitley and Jyotiraditya Scindia were Disciplinary Committee members. They examined his financial improprieties over a 3 year period. When Modi still did not appear before the committee, he was banned from BCCI for a lifetime.
Re-Election In RCA
Lalit Modi was re-elected as President of Rajasthan Cricket Association. BCCI elected an adhoc body to carry the administrative function of RCA which was legally challenged by Lalit Modi. A meeting was held with a quorum of 23 members to review the decision. 17 member voted against Modi, 1 in favour, 5 were discarded as a dispute, and 12 members were not allowed to enter as they were 10 minutes late. Although the members who came late disclosed that they were attacked by the mob and beaten by the rod.
In one of his interviews by Boria Mazumdar, for Economic Times, he quoted upon asking, “Scared? For what? ” Anyone being in his position would have been scared. But he, being the winner of “India’s 30 Most Powerful People”, “Brand Builder of the Year” and a long list, was still cool to give attractive headlines and is still active on social media living his life with no regrets. India lost a treasure in the form of entrepreneur skills and talent to the most common disease called Greed.
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