The Troubled House Of The Billionaire Hinduja Brothers

The Troubled House Of The Billionaire Hinduja Brothers

Srichand Hinduja, left, and Gopichand Hinduja attend the TiE UK Awards 2013 at The Grosvenor House ... [+] Hotel on March 18, 2013 in London, England.



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For close to five decades, the four Hinduja brothers, Srichand, Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok, have presented a united front to the world. The ownership of their Hinduja Group, a multinational conglomerate from which they derive a combined $13 billion fortune, was based, they always insisted, on the family's golden rule of "Everything belongs to everyone and nothing belongs to anyone.“  



But behind the scenes, differences were simmering that spilled out into the open last week, exposing fissures in the family and raising a question on the future of the fortune held by the brothers. Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok are locked in a legal battle with ailing patriarch Srichand, who claims sole ownership of the Hinduja Bank in Switzerland, where his older daughter Shanu Hinduja is chairman and her son Karam Hinduja is the chief executive. The bank is a small part of the family's overall assets.



That claim, according to Srichand's three brothers, purportedly contradicts a 2014 declaration that the four brothers signed, which stated that the