Super-rich Indian business mogul Subrata Roy Sahara owns The Plaza Hotel, the New York landmark on Central Park where Eloise used to live. But instead of hanging out with Eloise, Sahara is hanging out in prison–where he’s being held for allegedly bilking small investors out of their life savings–and missing hearings on the charges. The 66-year-old Sahara, chairman of a diversified conglomerate called the Sahara Group, isn’t just in any prison either–he’s in the massive Tihar Jail in Delhi. (Tihar is the largest complex of prisons in South Asia.)
The tycoon is eager to get out of Tihar, where he’s been incarcerated since March. But there’s the little–or not so little–matter of bail, which has been set at $1.66 BILLION. Sahara is trying to sell The Plaza and some of his other hotel properties to raise the bail money. Sahara bought a controlling share of The Plaza in 2012 for $575 million, according to the Atlantic Wire. Interested buyers must consider this an extreme example of a distressed sale. Forbes reports that the Sahara Group’s hotel properties are mortgaged to the Bank of China.
