Vijay Mallya: Who owns the London homes of Vijay Mallya?

NEW DELHI: A few days ago, Vijay Mallya, baron of fugitive alcohol, said that there was not much to seize in his British goods because the sumptuous his family's residences were not in his name.

"I gave the British court on affidavit a statement of my British badets, which, under the freeze order, they have the right to take and remit to the banks", he said. "There are some cars, some jewels and I said" OK, okay. You do not have to bother coming to my house to grab them. I will hand them over physically. Tell me the time, the date and the place, "said Mallya.

But who owns the properties where Mallya lives? It's a puzzle that Arthur Conan Doyle's famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, might have solved in a jiffy. As ironic as it may sound, Mallya, which Indian investigative agencies have trouble catching, has a pad in London that is close to 221B Baker Street – the fictional home of Holmes.

According to Mallya, her Tewin property belongs to her children and her London home to her mother. But, the banks say that his homes are linked to the trust of his family through a network of companies.

Google Maps suggests that 18/19 Cornwall Terrace, the residence of Mallya, is also close to the iconic museum of Madame Tussauds wax statue and the "cradle of Bentley cars".

The property is owned by RCV, a company based in the British Virgin Islands. RCV is owned by Gladco Properties, itself owned by Continental Administration Services Ltd. (CASL), based in St. Kitts and Nevis, an offshore tax haven, trustee of Sileta Trust, a Mallya Family Trust.

The other property, its Hertfordshire estate at Tewin, Ladywalk and Bramble Lodge, with an estimated value of £ 15 million, also has links to the family trust.

The mortgage of the estate is under the name Ladywalk LLP, which has two members: CASL and the Swiss company Andrea Rishaal Vallabh, who is a member and director of CASL. Ladywalk Investments Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands, is wholly owned by Sileta Holdings Ltd, which is 100% owned by CASL, as trustee of Sileta Trust. It allowed Ladywalk LLP to receive 7.2 million pounds sterling (Rs 65.4 crores) in 2015 to buy the property.