Hyderabad: A US-based investor who was accused of derailing a Hyderabad-based company’s bid for the FIFA World Cup 2026 media rights in the Indian subcontinent by allegedly submitting forged financial documents claimed that the allegations against him were false.
TOI’s July 10 report said that the Hyderabad Central Crime Station (CCS) police had registered an FIR against US-based investor Deelip Mhaske and others under various sections of the BNS, including cheating, on the complaint of Pritish Kollati, managing director of Metalloid Productions Private Ltd, a Hyderabad-based company. The complainant alleged that his company had signed an agreement with Mhaske’s US-based company for a proposed $50 million investment from the latter to acquire FIFA World Cup media rights.
In response to the allegations, Mhaske said, “I believed I was helping create an extraordinary story for India—a story where a small Indian company could achieve something unimaginable on the global stage through FIFA. He also said that the allegations against him in the FIR were false. If the FIFA application contained inaccurate or misleading representations, then the truth must be confronted through the evidence not through false accusations,” Mhaske said.
The deal, however, did not go through after FIFA through due diligence, allegedly found out that various financial documents submitted by Mhaske and entities associated with him were false, fabricated or unverifiable. “We never furnished any false or fabricated documents to FIFA as alleged.