Leaked around 18 months back “Panama Papers” created sort of tremors in the country. These Panama papers are document evidence on wealthy individuals and public officials doing illegal transactions including fraud, tax evasion, and evading international sanctions. Now, recently leaked is the Paradise Papers, as a result of collaborative investigation into offshore and banking assets by the agencies and it is creating sensation in the country. This is the largest ever leak of financial data and it revealed of two firms Bermuda’s Appleby and Singapore’s Asiaciti. These 2 firms with 19 tax havens across the world are helping the global rich and powerful to move their money abroad. Out of these two firms, Bermuda law firm Appleby’s clientele included YS Jagan as per the leaked Paradise papers. Among the 180 countries represented in the data, India ranks 19th in terms of the number of names. In all, there are 714 Indians in the tally.
“Paradise Papers” data was obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and were investigated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) working in partnership with 96 news organisations. The investigation revealed – 119-year-old Bermuda law firm Appleby is found to be helping its global rich customers on – avoid or evade taxes; manage real estate assets; open escrow accounts; purchase airplanes and yachts paying low tax rates; or, simply, use offshore vehicles to move millions across the globe. Indian company, Sun Group, founded by Nand Lal Khemka, figures as Appleby’s second-largest client internationally. Among Appleby’s Indian clients are several prominent corporates and companies which subsequently came under the scrutiny of investigating agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). These include firms in the Sun-TV-Aircel-Maxis case; Essar-Loop 2G case; 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 early Honorary/Independent Directors of the firm respectively); and fresh financial links in a CBI case against YSR Congress Chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The Paradise Papers is the fourth collaborative investigation into offshore and banking assets done by The Indian Express with the ICIJ. The first collaboration was done in April 2013 (“offshore leaks”) in which 612 Indians were named as having incorporated companies in British Virgin islands. This was followed by “Swiss Leaks”, which was data leaked from the HSBC’s branch in Geneva and included 1,195 Indian account holders. The “Panama Papers” came next in April 2016 and the global investigation was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism.
