London, Jan. 13: Indian-origin tycoon Ketan Somaia was yesterday ordered to pay back a record £38.6 million (around Rs 375 crore) and called "a formidable and serial fraudsman on a truly Olympian scale" by an Old Bailey judge in London.

But in his heyday, before he was rumbled as a con artist, Somaia built up his credibility by posting photographs of himself, sometimes with his wife Alka, with Subhash Ghai, Rakesh Roshan, Rishi Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Randhir Kapoor, Salman Khan and other Bollywood actors.

Somaia, 53, who was born in Kenya and became a resident of the UK in 2009, managed to get a photograph of himself with the spiritual leader Pramukh Swami in Ahmedabad.

Somaia was a judge in the 1997 Miss World contest in the Seychelles which was won by India's Diana Hayden -- he denied there was a conflict of interest although he was the main sponsor of the beauty pageant and also had business links with Hayden's company in Mumbai.

But yesterday at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales (commonly known as the Old Bailey), Somaia, currently serving an eight-year prison term for defrauding millionaire investors, was ordered to pay back the record amount.

The Old Bailey prosecution was brought privately by the main victim, Murli Mirchandani. It is said to be the biggest private prosecution in British legal history.

Judge Richard Hone QC made a confiscation order, with £18.2 million to go to Mirchandani and £20.4 million to go into the public purse.

In his ruling, the judge said: "Ketan Somaia has to be described as a formidable and serial fraudsman on a truly Olympian scale."

He added that it was "quite clear that Ketan Somaia was in receipt of significant sums and his lifestyle continued to be lavish until he was imprisoned in July 2014".

The judge commented: "This case has been exceptional for a number of reasons - the sums involved, the extraordinary lifestyles, the famous names, the world of international businessmen and the outpouring of $23 million simply relying on the concept of 'My word is my bond'."

Somaia has claimed that all his money is gone but the judge believes he has hidden his wealth through relatives and warned him he faces an extra 16 years in jail unless he pays up.

The evidence showed Somaia owned two properties worth more than £1 million, for example, but these were held in the names of third parties.

When Somaia arrived in London, he was preceded by his reputation of having been a controversial businessman in Kenya. But he became a familiar and popular figure in British Indian high society.

At his trial in 2014, the court heard that Somaia served "cases and cases" of Dom Pérignon 1984 champagne, while his PA, Arifa Parkar, was not paid her wages. Giving evidence, Parkar told the court she took calls from unpaid creditors before eventually quitting her job.

Somaia lured investors by claiming his companies were worth £294 million, while his personal wealth stood at £58 million. He hosted expensive parties in Dubai and also took potential investors on all-expenses-paid trips to Africa and Dubai, where chauffeur-driven cars, private jets and stays at luxury hotels were the norm.

Somaia was president and CEO of the Dolphin Group of Companies, and sponsored the Miss World competition twice. His most infamous involvement was with the Goldenberg scandal, in which he claimed government subsidies by selling non-existent Kenyan gold and diamonds.

Somaia was allegedly one of the beneficiaries of the scam, where he was paid millions of shillings by Goldenberg International Ltd. The scandal is said to have cost the Kenya government billions of shillings in the 1990s and implicated former President Daniel arap Moi.

The jury at the Old Bailey found that Somaia also defrauded a London businessman, Dilip Shah, of £200,000.

Before meeting Mirchandani, Somaia was said to have fleeced a third man, Surajit Sen, for £1.1 million in 1997.

In London, Somaia had offices in Mayfair and owned a mansion in Hadley Wood, north London, a suburb popular among Premier League footballers. He dined at exclusive clubs and sent his daughter to a Swiss finishing school.

In 2008, Somaia was arrested in India and extradited to Britain. However, the case was dropped on grounds of Somaia's ill health.

Following yesterday's ruling, Mirchandani said: "The theft of $19.5 million by Ketan Somaia from me has had a devastating effect on my life, my health, my business and regrettably, on my family. It was heartbreaking to hear during these proceedings how Mr Somaia was spending a small fortune in luxury restaurants and hotels in London and distributing money that was the result of decades of hard work by my family business, to his own family and friends, who were living the life of royalty."

But for a businessman, Mirchandani appears to have been either remarkably trusting or gullible.

Somaia first asked him for a short-term loan of £599,000 in 1999 to buy shares in his Delphis Bank Mauritius, guaranteeing repayment in four months according to a detailed breakdown published by the Daily Mail.

Two days later, he convinced Mirchandani to hand over £5.2 million to buy a 10 per cent stake in the bank. In July Mirchandani transferred another £1.68 million to buy a stake in another company, which Somaia claimed would double in value within three years.

The following month Mirchandani thought he was paying £1.87 million for a 50 per cent interest in the Diamond Mining Corporation of Liberia, which Somaia claimed would treble in value within nine months.

Two weeks later Mirchandani transferred another £2 million to Somaia to help purchase a bank in Tanzania with a guaranteed profit of 20 per cent and full repayment within 120 days at 15-per-cent interest. In October 1999, Somaia invited Mirchandani to a meeting at his office in Brook Street, Mayfair and offered him the chance to invest in a hotel group in South Africa.

Mirchandani paid £1.24 million for a 50 per cent interest in the deal but never received any paper work confirming his investment. The businessman became increasingly worried about his investments after Somaia asked for two loans of £690,000 at 15 per cent interest and £1 million at 18 per cent interest in November 1999.

The following month he invited Mirchandani on another "no-expenses-spared" trip to South Africa in December.

By March 2000 Mirchandani was pressing Somaia for repayment but still felt some obligation because of Somaia's previous generosity. As a result, he agreed to give Somaia a further loan of £690,000 to be repaid within 30 days.

He never received the money back but two months later Somaia again asked for another loan during a trip to Mauritius. Mirchandani agreed to give him another £690,000 on condition everything was repaid by September 2000 before finally pulling the plug.

Mirchandani launched a private prosecution in the autumn of 2011 while Somaia was in London.

Somaia claimed in his defence that Mirchandani gave him the money knowing the risk it might be lost, and said the gamble had not paid off.