Aircel founder's new venture draws fraud allegations from financial accountability group

By A Representative 

A sharply worded commentary published on the website of the advocacy group, Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA), has raised an alarm over a new wellness event linked to controversial businessman C. Sivasankaran, urging India's Finance Minister to intervene before more people are defrauded. The piece was written by Thomas Franco, former General Secretary of the All India Bank Officers' Confederation and a Steering Committee Member at the Global Labour University.

According to the article, advertisements have been circulating for an event called the Longevity Summit India 2026, to be held at the Fairmont hotel in Mumbai and organised by a body called AIWO. The event is promoted as bringing together longevity science and wellness, and is fronted by Sivasankaran, who is described in the promotional material as the founder of Aircel and a health entrepreneur.

Franco alleges that Sivasankaran is an international fraudster who has cheated banks, the government and ordinary people over many years. He points to the collapse of Aircel, which Sivasankaran founded, noting that the company's insolvency left banks with losses exceeding Rs 600 crore plus interest. He cites a 2018 report that the CBI had booked the chiefs of Indian Bank and Syndicate Bank along with the Aircel founder in connection with an IDBI Bank fraud case, tied to loan accounts routed through a British Virgin Islands company and a Finland-based firm.

The commentary also references a 2023 ruling by the Madras High Court denying Sivasankaran permission to travel abroad, in a case connected to an alleged Rs 600 crore banking fraud involving the Siva Group of companies. The court is quoted as having called such economic offences a serious threat to the country's development, given the scale of public money and money-laundering concerns involved.

Franco notes that Sivasankaran currently lives outside India, in places such as Seychelles and Paris, and has also faced fraud-related cases in Canada and elsewhere. He criticises a Supreme Court-approved settlement from 2022 that allowed Siva Industries & Holdings to settle dues of around Rs 5,000 crore with an IDBI-led lender consortium for roughly Rs 328 crore, a haircut of about 93.5 percent, which he argues ran counter to provisions in the insolvency law meant to bar defaulters from bidding for their own insolvent companies. He adds that after appeals by the Income Tax Department, the Supreme Court in February 2026 allowed the promoter to pay a token amount upfront with the remaining balance due within 180 days, a window that has not yet lapsed.

Turning to the new event, Franco suggests Sivasankaran may be using it to raise funds from doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, nutritionists and patients, given participation fees reportedly ranging from about Rs 1.77 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. He argues that, based on past conduct, this could result in further public losses, and expresses concern that agencies including the Economic Offences Wing, the CBI, SEBI and the Department of Financial Services have not yet acted.

The commentary calls on the Finance Minister and Prime Minister to step in immediately, halt the event, ensure refunds to participants, and issue a public warning, while also urging scrutiny of others associated with the event. It further calls for banks that suffered losses to pursue criminal cases against Sivasankaran, for SEBI to verify AIWO's registration status and monitor its activities, and for Indian authorities to alert international agencies and banks given India's participation in relevant international agreements.