India
Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Ambani among Indians named in Pandora Papers
Businesspersons’ Anil Ambani and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar are among the world leaders, public officials and celebrities who have been named in a list of people who have allegedly used global tax havens to stash their assets from government scrutiny, The Indian Express reported.
Globally, prominent persons who allegedly used such havens include Pakistan Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and pop singer Shakira.
The revelations are based on over 11.9 million confidential documents from 14 offshore service firms that allegedly set up shell companies for clients seeking to keep their financial activities discreet. These shell companies were set up in tax havens such as Dubai, Monaco, Panama and Switzerland.
The documents were leaked to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. It shared access to the leaked data with a host of media partners including The Guardian, BBC Panorama and The Washington Post as part of a massive global investigation. The Indian Express conducted the Indian portion of the investigations.
The ICIJ referred to its investigation as the Pandora Papers.
A series of leaks of financial data has rattled the offshore world since 2013. The ‘Pandora Papers’ represent the latest and largest in terms of data volume.
Reliance ADA Group chairperson Anil Ambani and his representatives own at least 18 offshore companies in Jersey, British Virgin Islands and Cyprus, The Indian Express reported.
Seven of these companies reportedly borrowed and invested at least $1.3 billion (about Rs 9,649 crore).
However, in February 2020, Ambani told a court in London that he was bankrupt and his net worth was zero. The court, however, had said that there were questions “about the extent to which Mr Ambani has any offshore interests…”
The court later ordered him to pay $716 million (about Rs 5,315 crore) to three Chinese banks, but he did not do so.
The investigation by The Indian Express also found that investment bank Allegro Capital’s majority shareholder Kunal Kashyap is the “protector” of a trust named The Deanstone Trust, which was set up by Mauritius-based company Glentec International in New Zealand in 2015.
Glentec is reportedly 99% owned by John McCallum Marshall Shaw, the husband of Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.
On July 8, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India barred Allegro Capital and Kashyap from trading in the stock market for a year for insider trading in Biocon’s shares.
The Biocon executive chairperson told The Indian Express that Kashyap runs a financial advisory service that both Biocon and Glentec have used.
“Mr Kashyap advises several companies apart from Biocon,” she said. “I understand that Mr Kashyap’s SEBI case is currently pending with SAT (Securities Appellate Tribunal) and hence it would not be appropriate for me to comment on this any further.”
According to the Pandora Papers, Sachin Tendulkar and members of his family were Beneficial Owners of an offshore entity that was liquidated in 2016. The former cricketer, his wife Anjali and his father-in-law Anand Mehta have been named as Beneficiary Owners and Directors of Saas International Limited, a company based in the British Virgin Islands. The company was reportedly liquidated three months after the Panama Papers expose.
Mrinmoy Mukherjee, the director of Sachin Tendulkar Foundation, told The Indian Express that the investment was legitimate and was declared in the former cricketer’s income tax returns. He said that there was no question of him engaging in money laundering or tax evasion.
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