Vinay rai fraud department

Rai, an MIT engineering graduate and scion of the Usha group—which was led by his father Kulwant Rai, a modest industrialist from Uttar Pradesh—surfed the wave of economic reforms of the nineties.

But while his vision was grand, his capabilities and intent were somewhat suspect.

The Ispat group's initial rise was meteoric. From a modest steel trading operation, it bloomed into a pan-Indian manufacturing, power generation and infrastructure behemoth that boasted of annual revenues exceeding $1.5 billion by the early 2000.

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Soon enough, Rai scrambled onto magazine covers and began rubbing shoulders with politicians of every hue.

His flagship Ispat Industries became one of India's largest integrated steel producers. The conglomerate's power arm won lucrative contracts in multiple states.

Meteoric rise

In 2000, Rai also put