MUMBAI: Millions of leaked documents dubbed the Pandora Papers and a worldwide journalistic partnership on Sunday claims to have uncovered financial secrets of current and former world leaders, politicians and public officials in 91 countries and territories, including India.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which involved the BBC and ‘The Guardian’ newspaper in the U.K. and ‘The Indian Express’ in India among 150 media outlets in its investigation, claims it obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files to find secret financial dealings of many of the world’s super rich.
“People linked by the secret documents to offshore assets include Indian cricket legend and Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar, pop music diva Shakira, supermodel Claudia Schiffer and an Italian mobster known as ‘Lell the Fat One’,” PTI quotes the ICIJ as having said in its report.
“Mr Tendulkar’s attorney said the cricket player’s investment is legitimate and has been declared to tax authorities. Ms. Shakira’s attorney said the singer declared her companies, which the attorney said do not provide tax advantages. Ms Schiffer’s representatives said the supermodel correctly pays her taxes in the UK, where she lives,” it notes.
Sachin, along with members of his family, figures in the Pandora Papers as Beneficial Owners of an offshore entity in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) which was liquidated in 2016.
Indian Express reports that Sachin, with wife Anjali Tendulkar and father-in-law Anand Mehta, as per an investigation of records of Panama law firm Alcogal which are part of Pandora Papers, are named as BOs and Directors of a BVI-based company: Saas International Limited. The data is part of documents from Panamian law firm, Alcogal, with their company being incorporated by LJ Management (Suisse).
When contacted by the daily, Mrinmoy Mukherjee, CEO and director of Sachin Tendulkar Foundation, said: “The referenced investment by Mr Tendulkar has been made by him from his tax paid funds under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) and has been duly accounted for and declared in his tax returns.
(Under the LRS scheme, as of March 2007, an individual could remit $100,000 per year for specified purposes. This was raised to $200,000 in September 2007, cut sharply to $75,000 in August 2013, revised upward to $125,000 in June 2014 and then doubled to the existing $250,000 in May 2015.)
“You have, in your email, not only recognised the legal uses of offshore companies, but also indicated that the ICIJ’s intention is to look into the use of certain jurisdictions by persons to engage in money laundering, tax evasion and other illicit activities.
“This being the case, we would therefore at the outset wish to strongly reiterate the legitimacy of the referenced investment by Mr. Tendulkar, the payment of taxes on such funds, and the declaration of such investment in Mr. Tendulkar’s tax returns. As is evident from the payment of taxes by Mr. Tendulkar and the declaration of such investment in Mr. Tendulkar’s tax returns, there can be no question of Mr. Tendulkar having engaged in any of the practices quoted in your email.”
He added: “We reiterate that the investment by Mr. Tendulkar has been legitimately made through banking channels from India and has been declared to the income tax authorities. Further, the amount of Rs 60 crore as quoted by you is grossly incorrect, but regardless, all amounts received by Mr. Tendulkar on liquidation of the investment have also been declared in his tax returns.”
“We would once again request you to ensure that neither The Indian Express nor the ICIJ attributes or alleges any improper or illegal motives to Mr. Tendulkar’s legitimate investments,” he added.
Meanwhile, on a world map highlighting the number of politicians linked with offshore dealings, India is shown as having six and Pakistan seven, PTI further reports.
“ICIJ’s latest investigation, the Pandora Papers, brings renewed attention to the use of offshore companies by Pakistani political players. This time, the offshore holdings of people close to (Prime Minister Imran) Khan are being disclosed, including his Finance Minister and a top financial backer,” the findings claim.
A spokesperson for Khan told a press conference that if any of his ministers or advisors had offshore companies, “they will have to be held accountable”.
According to the ICIJ, its secret documents expose offshore dealings of the likes of the King of Jordan, the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and former British prime minister Tony Blair. The files also reveal financial activities of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “unofficial minister of propaganda” and more than 130 billionaires from Russia, the US, Turkey and other nations.
The ICIJ says the leaked records come from 14 offshore services firms from around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore nooks for clients often seeking to keep their financial activities in the shadows.
It says the global investigation provides an “unequalled perspective” on how the rule of law has been “bent and broken” around the world by a system of financial secrecy enabled by wealthy nations.
“The findings by ICIJ and its media partners spotlight how deeply secretive finance has infiltrated global politics – and offer insights into why governments and global organisations have made little headway in ending offshore financial abuses,” it notes.
The ICIJ analysis of the secret documents identified 956 companies in offshore havens tied to 336 high-level politicians and public officials, including country leaders, cabinet ministers, ambassadors and others.
