The influential, public figures and businessmen from India has yet again figured in some of the high profile documents on the off shore equity firms whose data was leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The leaked “Paradise papers” is likely to embarrass the government which is trying to showcase its battle with black money ahead of the first anniversary of the demonetisation drive – November 8. The documents leaked belong to two firms, Appleby of Bermuda and Asiaciti of Singapore, fast emerging as a tax haven. These companies operated in 19 tax havens across the globe.
The most prominent Indian name is MoS Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha who worked as Managing Director of US investment firm, D.Light Design, in India. D.Light’s holding company is Omidyar Network. D.Light took a secured loan worth USD 3 million from its Cayman Island subsidiary and Jayant SInha was one of the six signatories to this decision.
Sinha has however mentioned the fact that he worked for a Omidyar Network subsidiary from 2009 to 2013 when he subsequently resigned to join ‘public service’. In a series of tweets, Sinha said he was a designated representative on the D.Light board on behalf of Omidyar Network. “On joining the Union Council of Ministers, I immediately resigned from the D.Light Board and severed my involvement with the company”.
While the jury is out on that one, there are other notables which the CBI is taking note of. Beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya as per the Paradise Papers managed to get the Diageo group, which has invested in United Spirits Limited, to waive off a USD 1.5 billion debt which enabled him to get away with a whopping Rs 10,000 crore as per the Appleby documents.
Top CBI officials probing the Mallya case say they are studying the papers which they hope will come in handy in extraditing the businessman now residing in London. The ICIJ leaks say the waiver through a complex restructuring of the debt structure enabled Mallya to take away much more then the Rs 11,225 crore that he reported to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
But a clear conflict of interest appears to be of Fortis Escorts Hospital chief and well known cardiologist Dr Ashok Seth. The doctor got shares of a Singapore based company that manufactures stents. Biosensors International group listed in Singapore which manufactures and markets medical devices for critical care procedures was incorporated in the Bermudas and listed on the Singapore stock exchange.
Seth admitted he made a made a profit of Rs 54 lakh from these shares. Seth wasn’t the only one. Doctors from countries like Japan, Indonesia and Singapore benefited from the Biosensors largesse as per the minutes of the meeting of the board of directors. Seth said he did not use any Biosensor products as long as he possessed the shares.
The cache of 13.4 million documents were accessed by German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and amongst the other notables who figure in the Appleby and Asiaciti documents are Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt’s wife, Manyata, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and BJP MP and promoter of security company SIS Securities R K Sinha.