NEW DELHI - Minister of State Jayant Sinha, BJP MP Ravindra Kishore, Con-gress leader Sachin Pilot, former minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karti and Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan figure among 714 Indians named in a financial data expose on how the world’s rich and powerful have stashed their wealth abroad to evade legitimate taxes, according to a worldwide investigation whose first lot of revelations was published on Nov 6.
India ranks 19th among 180 countries, exposed in the cache of 13.4 million documents dubbed as “Paradise Papers”, in terms of the number of individuals and companies who have skirted taxes and invested in offshore companies in tax havens. It comes a year after Panama Papers leak and two days before the government
observes “Anti-Black Money Day” to mark the first anniversary of demonetisation -- a move that sought to hit at illicit wealth.
The data relates to two firms - Bermuda’s Appleby and Singapore’s Asiaciti and 19 tax havens across the world that help the global rich to move their money abroad, according to the Indian Express which was part of the world-wide probe carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.“Interestingly, it is an Indian company, Sun Group, founded by Nand Lal Khemka, that figures as Appleby’s second-largest client internationally, with as many as 118 different offshore entities,” the newspaper said.
The leaked data indicates that among Appleby’s Indian clients were several prominent corporates and companies which subsequently came under the scrutiny of investigating agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate.
These include firms in the Sun-TV-Aircel-Maxis case; Essar-Loop 2G case; SNS-Lavalin in which Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was named and then cleared; the Rajasthan ambulance scam which has recently been routed to the CBI and which names a company called Ziquista Healthcare (Sachin Pilot and Karti Chidambaram were earlier honorary/independent directors of the firms respectively); and fresh financial links in a CBI case against YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha’s name figures in the record because of his past association with Omidyar Network.
BJP Rajya Sabha member Ravindra Kishore Sinha, a former journalist who founded the private security service firm SIS or Security and Intelligence Services, is heading a group that has two offshore entities in Malta offshore.
Besides corporates, the data revealed details of individuals as well: Amitabh Bachchan’s shareholding in a Bermuda company acquired before the 2004 Liberalised Remittance Scheme kicked in; corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and film star Sanjay Dutt’s wife who figures under her former name Dilnashin.
Jayant Sinha denied any wrongdoing and said all transactions related to him mentioned in the investigation were “fully disclosed” to relevant authorities and were done in his “official capacity, not personal”.
“These were bonafide and legal transactions undertaken on behalf of highly reputed world-leading organisations in my fiduciary role as Partner at Omidyar Network and its designated representative on the D.Light Board,” he tweeted.
The daily said Jayant Sinha did not mention this in his declaration to the Election Commission when he contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, nor to the Lok Sabha Secretariat or the Prime Minister’s Office as a Minister of State in 2016.
But the Minister said all these transactions have been fully disclosed to “relevant authorities through all necessary filings as required”.
But the Congress was not impressed with his defence and demanded Jayant Sinha’s resignation and a “high-level probe” into the scam. Meanwhile,Multi-Agency Group will investigate the Paradise Papers on offshore financial holdings.
The government said that it had so far zeroed in on 147 actionable cases and 279 non-actionable cases relating to the earlier published Panama Papers. “The government has directed that investigations in cases of Paradise Papers will be monitored through a reconstituted Multi-Agency Group, headed by CBDT Chairman and including representatives from the Central Board of Direct Taxes, ED, RBI and Financial Intelligence Unit,” a Finance Ministry release said.
According to official sources here, the Agency would be a reconstitution of the committee formed last April to investigate the Indians named in the Panama Papers who were accused of stashing money in offshore entities to evade taxes.
observes “Anti-Black Money Day” to mark the first anniversary of demonetisation -- a move that sought to hit at illicit wealth.
The data relates to two firms - Bermuda’s Appleby and Singapore’s Asiaciti and 19 tax havens across the world that help the global rich to move their money abroad, according to the Indian Express which was part of the world-wide probe carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.“Interestingly, it is an Indian company, Sun Group, founded by Nand Lal Khemka, that figures as Appleby’s second-largest client internationally, with as many as 118 different offshore entities,” the newspaper said.
The leaked data indicates that among Appleby’s Indian clients were several prominent corporates and companies which subsequently came under the scrutiny of investigating agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate.
These include firms in the Sun-TV-Aircel-Maxis case; Essar-Loop 2G case; SNS-Lavalin in which Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was named and then cleared; the Rajasthan ambulance scam which has recently been routed to the CBI and which names a company called Ziquista Healthcare (Sachin Pilot and Karti Chidambaram were earlier honorary/independent directors of the firms respectively); and fresh financial links in a CBI case against YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha’s name figures in the record because of his past association with Omidyar Network.
BJP Rajya Sabha member Ravindra Kishore Sinha, a former journalist who founded the private security service firm SIS or Security and Intelligence Services, is heading a group that has two offshore entities in Malta offshore.
Besides corporates, the data revealed details of individuals as well: Amitabh Bachchan’s shareholding in a Bermuda company acquired before the 2004 Liberalised Remittance Scheme kicked in; corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and film star Sanjay Dutt’s wife who figures under her former name Dilnashin.
Jayant Sinha denied any wrongdoing and said all transactions related to him mentioned in the investigation were “fully disclosed” to relevant authorities and were done in his “official capacity, not personal”.
“These were bonafide and legal transactions undertaken on behalf of highly reputed world-leading organisations in my fiduciary role as Partner at Omidyar Network and its designated representative on the D.Light Board,” he tweeted.
The daily said Jayant Sinha did not mention this in his declaration to the Election Commission when he contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, nor to the Lok Sabha Secretariat or the Prime Minister’s Office as a Minister of State in 2016.
But the Minister said all these transactions have been fully disclosed to “relevant authorities through all necessary filings as required”.
But the Congress was not impressed with his defence and demanded Jayant Sinha’s resignation and a “high-level probe” into the scam. Meanwhile,Multi-Agency Group will investigate the Paradise Papers on offshore financial holdings.
The government said that it had so far zeroed in on 147 actionable cases and 279 non-actionable cases relating to the earlier published Panama Papers. “The government has directed that investigations in cases of Paradise Papers will be monitored through a reconstituted Multi-Agency Group, headed by CBDT Chairman and including representatives from the Central Board of Direct Taxes, ED, RBI and Financial Intelligence Unit,” a Finance Ministry release said.
According to official sources here, the Agency would be a reconstitution of the committee formed last April to investigate the Indians named in the Panama Papers who were accused of stashing money in offshore entities to evade taxes.
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