714 Indians in global tax evasion scam

New Delhi, November 6

Minister of State Jayant Sinha, BJP MP Ravindra Kishore, Congress 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.

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.

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The expose 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. The data relates to two firms — Bermuda’s Appleby and Singapore’s Asiaciti — and 19 tax havens across the world, according to a daily that was part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) involved in the expose.

“Interestingly, it is an Indian company, Sun Group, founded by Nand Lal Khemka, that figures as Appleby’s second-largest client internationally, with 118 different offshore entities,” it 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 CBI and the ED.

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; and fresh financial links in a CBI case against YSR Congress chief YS 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, who founded the private security service firm SIS (Security and Intelligence Services), heads a group with two offshore entities in Malta.

Besides corporates, the data revealed details of individuals too: Amitabh Bachchan's shareholding in a Bermuda company acquired before the 2004 Liberalised Remittance Scheme; corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and filmstar Sanjay Dutt's wife, who figures under her former name Dilnashin.

Jayant Sinha denied any wrongdoing. "All transactions 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 did not mention this in his declaration to the Election Commission when he contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2014.

"After leaving Omidyar Network, I was asked to continue on the D Light board as an independent director. On joining the Union Council of Ministers, I immediately resigned from the D Light board and severed my involvement with the company," he maintained.

Not impressed, the Congress demanded Jayant's resignation. "The PM's so-called fight against black money and corruption remains a complete flop. Jayant Sinha refuses to disclose various financial documents that he has signed for or on behalf of Omidyar Network. He is or has been a director of various other companies. Do these companies have any connection to any offshore entities like the Omidyar Network," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asked.

On Sachin Pilot and son of former minister Vayalar Ravi figuring in 'Paradise Papers' regarding the Rajasthan ambulance scam, he said: "A CBI and ED probe has already been initiated against Sachin Pilot. Will the government order a probe against all those on the list?" He asked the PMr  if he knew about RK Sinha and his wife's "international tax havens-based entities". On "maun vrat" for a week, the BJP MP could not comment on the matter. — IANS

Will cooperate

"It takes a while to dig out old files and to compile all that they want... the fullest cooperation has been extended... we shall comply... It is the norm" — Amitabh Bachchan

NO wrong done

"All transactions were bonafide and undertaken on behalf of reputed organisations in my role as partner at Omidyar Network and D Light board." — Jayant Sinha, MoS