Choksi's accomplice and relative, billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi, was arrested as early as 2019 in the United Kingdom.
They are believed to have played a central role in a fraud scheme in India. It involves a scam – described as the largest of its kind in the country's history – where approximately 18 billion kronor was stolen through fake loans from the state-owned major bank Punjab National Bank. The men, who deny any wrongdoing, fled their homeland in 2018.
Choksi was arrested in Antwerp – a city central to the world's diamond trade – on Saturday. According to his lawyer, he will contest extradition and request to be released citing poor health and lack of flight risk.
Modi remains detained in the United Kingdom and has been called the "jeweler of the stars" as he has had celebrity clients in both Hollywood and India's equivalent Bollywood.
Indian authorities have seized assets from him worth $90 million, including his jewelry business, foreign bank accounts, and properties in London and New York.
