The Indian businessman and former owner of the Force India team, Vijay Mallya , has received a new conviction for disobeying a previous court ruling related to the bankruptcy of his airline, as reported by the British BBC network.
The Supreme Court of India sentenced one of the most influential businessmen in the country to four months in prison. However, at the moment it is a sentence that he will not be able to fulfill, since he is not in his native country.
The tycoon, who made his fortune through alcohol and the Kingfisher brand, created his own airline before bringing the same name to Formula 1 as a sponsor of Force India .
His whereabouts are unknown, although it is believed that he is still in London, England, where the justice system has tried to extradite him on several occasions and where he has remained for years after leaving India in 2016 also due to legal problems.
The court’s ruling charged Mallya with contempt, considering that he did not disclose his assets after a loan default. He was convicted of the same crime in 2017, after allegedly transferring $40 million to his children at a time when loans to Kingfisher Airlines remained unpaid, authorities said at the time.
Although in the United Kingdom they ruled that he could be extradited to India to comply with his criminal proceedings, until now this has not been fulfilled.
Mallya owned the Force India team, which came onto the grid after buying the assets of the Spyker team. He disputed 198 races and achieved six podiums, most of them with Sergio Pérez at the wheel of one of his single-seaters.
In the 2016 and 2017 seasons, he finished fourth in the constructors’ standings before losing control of the team in 2018 after an administration process for non-payment that gave the controls to Lawrence Stroll .
Since the authorities began to add legal charges against him, Mallya stopped traveling to Formula 1 races and his only regular visit to the highest category of motorsport was always the Silverstone paddock during the British Grand Prix. .
