Nehal Modi arrested soon after 3-year jail term ended in US, extradition hearing likely on July 17

The CBI was in touch with US authorities for the last one month as Nehal Modi's date of release neared, officials said.

New Delhi: Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi's younger brother, Nehal Modi, walked out of a US prison on Friday after serving a nearly-three-year sentence in a cheating case and was taken into custody soon after by authorities there on the request of Indian agencies, officials said.

The Interpol had issued a Red Notice against Nehal Modi on the request of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2021 and an extradition request was also sent in 2022, but it could not be executed as he was incarcerated in a US prison after being sentenced in a cheating case, the officials said.

The CBI was in touch with US authorities for the last one month as Nehal Modi's date of release neared, they added.

The coordination between the agencies of the two countries ensured that Nehal Modi was arrested soon after he was released from jail, the officials said.

The CBI will press for his extradition during a July 17 hearing, while Nehal Modi may seek bail from the court, they said.

Nehal Modi, 46, was convicted by a New York State Supreme Court jury of Grand Larceny in the First Degree in 2022.

He had made false representations regarding a purported deal with Costco Wholesale Corporation to obtain diamonds worth more than USD 2.6 million from LLD, also known as Lev Leviev Diamonds, between March and August 2015, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L Bragg had said in a statement on July 29, 2022.

"Mr Modi tricked this Manhattan company and pawned and sold diamonds that were not rightfully his on the cheap for his own financial gain," Bragg had said.

In India, Nehal Modi is wanted in connection with the alleged Rs 13,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud -- one of the biggest banking scams -- reportedly orchestrated by his elder brother, Nirav Modi, and uncle, Mehul Choksi.

Nirav Modi had, through his companies, siphoned off approximately Rs 6,498 crore from the PNB by issuing fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs), while the remaining amount was misappropriated by his uncle in a similar modus operandi, according to the CBI chargesheet.

Born and raised in Belgium's Antwerp and fluent in English, Gujarati and Hindi, Nehal Deepak Modi is wanted in India for allegedly destroying evidence and laundering proceeds of crime on behalf of his brother, Nirav Modi, who remains incarcerated in a London prison, facing extradition proceedings to India.

It is alleged that Nehal Modi, a Belgian national, played a pivotal role in concealing and transferring large sums of illicit money through a labyrinthine web of shell companies and offshore transactions, in violation of Indian financial laws.

The CBI has accused Nehal Modi of intimidating directors of Dubai-based shell companies used by Nirav Modi to give a veneer of legitimacy to a fraudulent trade.

These individuals were allegedly coerced into relocating from Dubai to Cairo, during which their phones, laptops and computer servers were destroyed to erase evidence.

These individuals, employees of Nirav Modi's companies, were allegedly compelled to sign documents falsely declaring them as actual owners of companies based in Dubai and Hong Kong.

These entities were presented as engaged in legitimate export-import transactions with three Nirav Modi-controlled firms -- Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds.

These firms are accused of unlawfully benefitting from the buyer's credit issued by overseas banks on the strength of the LoUs fraudulently obtained from the PNB's Brady House branch in Mumbai, in collusion with complicit bank officials.