(Image source from: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists)
714 Indians, Corporates In Biggest Data Leak : Paradise Papers:- As many as 714 Indians and corporates who have evaded taxes and hedged funds have been put on spotlight with a new set of 13.4 million records from a corporate and law services provider firm Appleby. This shocking news comes just an year after the Panama papers took the world by storm.
The Paradise Papers are a treasure of corporate documents. The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung receives them. These documents are shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
To facilitate bank loans or transfer of shares, Appleby, like Mossack Fonseca (Panama Papers, 2016) provides assistance in setting up offshore companies and bank accounts. These shares are layered in multiple “secrecy jurisdictions” that help skirt taxes and shore up one’s wealth.
There are also details from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments. These registries are in secrecy jurisdictions - Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Cook Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Labuan, Lebanon, Malta, the Marshall Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu, reports a leading news paper.
The India Link
A report by a leading news paper said, India ranks 19th in terms of the number of names and second among Appleby’s clients, and among the 180 countries featuring in the data leak.
Have a look at some of the names of Indian companies and individuals that have cropped up in the leak :
1. Sun Group, founded by Nand Lal Khemka, figures as Appleby’s second-largest client internationally, with as many as 118 different overseas shell entities.
2. Firms in the Sun-TV-Aircel-Maxis case.
3. Firms in the Essar-Loop 2G case.
4. SNC-Lavalin case. The Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was accused in this case, but later cleared.
5. Those involved in the Rajasthan ambulance scam that names a company called Ziquista Healthcare, whose early Honorary/Independent Directors included Sachin Pilot and Karti Chidambaram.
6. Fresh financial leads in a CBI case against YSR Congress Chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
7. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha also features on the list due to his past association with the Omidyar Network.
8. BJP Rajya Sabha MP due to his association with offshore accounts.
9. R K Sinha, Founder of Security and Intelligence Services (SIS).
10. Niira Radia, the corporate lobbyist, of Radia tapes fame.
11. Sanjay Dutt’s wife Manyata who features under her former name Dilnashin.
12. Offshore accounts of Amitabh Bachhan in a Bermuda company acquired before implementation of the 2004 Liberalised Remittance Scheme.
13. Diageo, the company that acquired Mallya’s United Spirits Limited India.
14. GMR Group.
15. Jindal Steel, Apollo Tyres, Havells, Hindujas, Emaar MGF, Videocon, the Hiranandani Group and D S Construction, among others.
Global link
The secret dealings of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chief fund-raiser, Russian firm’s investments in Twitter and Facebook, relationship between Russia and US President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, Queen Elizabeth's investments, activities of former Pakistan PM Shaukat Aziz, among 120 other politicians, also claim to be revealed by the papers globally.
SUPRAJA
