The former WTA No.2, Maria Sharapova has recently become the target of a federal investigation in India.
Apparently, the Russian tennis legend the investigation has as a subject a fraud and criminal conspiracy, generated by the bankruptcy of a luxury real-estate project, a lawyer has concluded earlier this week.
The developer of this real estate project would have taken millions of dollars from the buyers before the business filed for bankruptcy.
Piyush Singh, the lawyer of one of the investors, told AFP that police initiated the prosecution for fraud and criminal conspiracy against the Russian player because a major part of the case is focusing against the Homestead Infrastructure Development.
Sharapova (30) traveled to India in 2012 to launch this luxury apartment building project called “Ballet by Maria Sharapova”, which initially was presented to the potential buyers as a complex equipped with a tennis academy, a club, and a heliport.
The project site quotes Sharapova saying that his goal is to make “owners feel that they have something special and different.”
“Any celebrity who sustains a product becomes technically the agent of that company. No one would have invested in the project if Mary Sharapova’s name had not been there”, added an Indian lawyer.
Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova or her representatives did not respond to the allegations.
The Gurgaon project – a satellite city of the Indian capital New Delhi – should have been completed by 2016, but Singh said the works were abandoned after the developers took millions of dollars from the buyers.
The police have not yet commented on this case, which will be brought in front of a New Delhi court. Also, the developers of the project were not contacted.
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