Black Money Panama Papers List Names of Indians who kept offshore accounts

Black Money Panama Papers List Names of Indians who kept offshore accounts 


A new data leak and international journalistic investigation has named and identified the secret offshore dealings of over 500 Indians, including top Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, industrialist’s K P Singh and Sameer Gehlaut, and a number of politicians.
Revealed 500 Indians linked to offshore firm’s tax heavens

Biggest leak of over 11 million documents of Panama law firm features over 500 Indians linked to offshore firms, finds 8-month investigation by a team of The Indian Express led by Ritu Sarin, Executive Editor (News & Investigations).

More than 11 million documents from the secret files of Mossack Fonseca, a law firm headquartered in tax haven Panama, known for its factory-like production of offshore companies for its worldwide clientele of the well-heeled.
The Mossack Fonseca data contains details of entities set up almost four decades ago from 1977 up to those registered just four months ago, that is, December 2015. 

Over 500 Indians figure on the firm’s list of offshore companies, foundations and trusts. There are also 234 Indian passports (handed over by clients as part of the incorporation process) 

These records reveal a list of individuals who have paid the firm — and bought the benefits of the secretive, lax regulatory system in which it operates — to set up offshore entities in tax havens around the world.

Twelve current or former heads of state are named in the investigations, including the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the president of Ukraine and the king of Saudi Arabia, as well as sporting and movie stars including Jackie Chan.
They allege Chinese President Xi Jinping and his family have links to offshore accounts, and claim Iceland's prime minister secretly owned millions of dollars of bank bonds during the financial crisis.

The investigations allege close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is not himself named in the documents, "secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies".

What do The Panama Papers reveal?
Individuals who have set up offshore entities through the Panama law firm
Some Indians say companies acquired is not the same as companies incorporated; some have bunched their annual quota of remittances to subscribe to shares in an offshore entity acquired at an earlier date.
some others have received income earned abroad and deposited it in the entity to avoid tax. Some have opened a bank account to keep payoffs in government contracts, or held “proceeds of crime” or property bought with money made illegally in rusts/Foundations.

Why float a foreign company, why go all the way to Panama to register it?
a-secrecy of information relating to the ultimate beneficiary owner
b-zero tax on income generated.

in Panama, individuals can ask for bearer shares, where the owner’s name is not mentioned anywhere. Besides, it costs little or nothing to set up an entity abroad.

Given the humongous 2.6 tera byte dump size of Project Prometheus — as the investigation was aptly named — the task was cut out for the team. Tracing Indians in the database comprising over 11 million files and 2,14,488 offshore entities was akin to searching for a needle in a haystack.

In all, the dump finally threw up 36,957 India-related files. Online tools were created to unravel complex web-like linkages between individuals and multiple entities. Internal mails of Mossack Fonseca and legal incorporation documents attached in these revealed addresses and passports of individuals

List of Clients Indians who opened accounts offshore in tax heavens in Panama.

Indians were not allowed to float overseas entities before 2003.
1-
Garware family
Offshore entities: Rondor Overseas Ltd, others
Location: BVI and Panama

MF records show that the Garware family, comprising Ashok Garware, Aditya Garware and Sushma Garware, is associated with a clutch of offshore entities.

Ashok Garware is a shareholder in Rondor Overseas Ltd, registered in BVI on May 10, 1996, holding 1,000 shares of $1 each and a capital of $10,000.

Aditya Garware and Sushma Garware hold a Power of Attorney (PoA) in a number of Panamanian corporations that issued bearer shares.

Ashok Garware is the executive chairman of Global Offshore Services, earlier known as Garware Offshore Services, which owns and operates a fleet of anchor-handling tugs cum supply vessels and platform supply vessels in India, Europe and the Far East.

Garware’s son Aditya is the managing director of Global Offshore. Other firms of the Garware Group include Garware Goa Nets, Garware Marine Industries and Garware Offshore International Services Pte.

MF documents show that Aditya and Sushma Garware held PoAs in at least six Panamian corporations:
Avior SA,
VRA Team Corp SA,
U R Great SA,
Wellman SA,
Yukon Portfolio SA
Python Corp.

All above corporations were floated in 2008 with Aditya and Sushma being issued PoAs for three years. But these companies were inactive since 2009 and Aditya signed off their dissolution on July 22, 2014.

Another Panamanian entity Orel Corporation SA, too, issued PoAs to Ashok Garware and Maneesha Shah in January 2011 and November 2010, respectively, but these were revoked in July 2012.

The Garwares also set up Fujiyama Team Foundation with initial assets of $10,000 and Ashok, Sushma and Aditya as the principal beneficiaries. The public deed for the foundation was signed on October 26, 2010, and it was registered on November 1, 2010. However, it was struck off the register on January 15, 2013.

2- Shishir K Bajoria
Offshore entity: Haptic (BVI) Limited
Location: British Virgin Islands (BVI)
Shishir K Bajoria belongs to one of the oldest business families in Kolkata trading in jute and tea. He is the promoter of SK Bajoria Group, which has steel refractory units in six countries with an annual turnover of $200 million.

Bajoria is listed as a beneficial owner of Haptic (BVI) Limited, which was set up in the BVI on October 26, 2015 by Mossack Fonseca & Co (MF) along with First Names Group (Isle of Man), a corporate services provider.

MF records show the entity was formed “to receive assets from sister company and settle new trust” with its activities to be carried out “in Isle of Man/UK”. The value of its assets was more than $1 million. On December 2, 2015, First Names Group proposed to liquidate the company.

Core Holdings Corp (Charlestown, St Kitts and Nevis) was appointed the director and one share was issued to Castle Hill (Nominees) Ltd (Isle of Man).

MF records for Haptic include a copy of Bajoria’s passport (Z002543) as proof of identity and lists Alipore in Kolkata as his India address.

A close associate of former chief minister late Jyoti Basu, Bajoria quit his CPI-M membership and joined the BJP in August 2014.
He is one of the key BJP campaigners in the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal.

3-
Onkar Kanwar
Offshore entity: J&S Systems Corporation
Location: BVI
Onkar Kanwar, chairman of Apollo Group, and his family members floated an offshore entity, J&S Systems Corporation, in BVI in 2010 and two trusts in 2014.

MF records show that the entity holds a million shares of 0.01 pence each in London Stock Exchange-listed Mercom Oil Sands plc, an apartment in London’s iconic ‘The Tower’, and accounts in Barclays Bank, Singapore, and Cayman National Bank and Trust Company Ltd in Isle of Man. The balance in Cayman on November 30, 2014 was GBP 3,65,478.26, records show.

Apart from Onkar Kanwar, Neeraj Kanwar and Simran Kanwar, who became the first shareholders in J&S on October 6, 2010, shares are also held by Onkar’s wife Taru Kanwar. J&S was registered on July 30, 2010 and the promoters disclosed that the source of funds in the entity would be proceeds from business trade.

Onkar Kanwar is categorised as a Politically Exposed Person by MF’s Compliance Department because he was a board member of the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation from May 25, 2010 till September 20, 2014.

The address of Taru and Onkar in New Delhi’s Shanti Niketan is the same as that of Neeraj and Simran. In November 2013, the shareholding of J&S showed Onkar held 440 shares, Neeraj 570, Simran 430, Taru 100. Another 200 shares each were held by Simran and Neeraj together for their children Jai Karan and Syra. Records show that Onkar was a registered shareholder till March 14, 2014.

On January 30, 2014, Tara and Onkar floated a settlement called T&O Trust with Harneys Trustees Ltd. The final beneficiaries of the settlement were Jai Karan and Syra. On the same day, Neeraj and Simran floated a settlement S&N Trust with Harneys, listing Jai Karan and Syra as final beneficiaries.

In both cases, records show, the Trust Fund comprising 100 shares were to be split between Jai and Syra equally upon a “terminating event”.

4-
Harish Salve  -Advocate

Offshore entities: Crestbright Ltd, Pyebush Group Ltd, Edenval Ltd
Location: BVI

One of the most sought-after lawyers in the country, Harish Salve has represented celebrity clients in the Supreme Court. He was Solicitor General of India between 1999 and 2002.

MF records show that Salve and his family members registered three offshore companies in the BVI — Crestbright Ltd, Pyebush Group Ltd and Edenval Ltd — through the London-based agent Rawi & Co with Vasant Vihar in New Delhi as the India address. MF records include a recommendation letter from Salve to Rawi & Co in 2007, asking them to set up a company and a trust for Ramesh Mahajan and Asha Mahajan.

MF records show that Salve is listed as a director in Crestbright Ltd, which was registered in 2012 with Salendra Swarup as another director. The other two entities were registered in 2008 with Salve’s wife Meenakshi Harish Salve and daughter Sakshi Harish Salve as directors. MF records show that Edenval Ltd is listed as a shareholder in the incorporation documents of Pyebush Group Ltd.

5-
Jehangir S Sorabjee
Offshore entity: Moonglow Investments Global Ltd
Location: BVI
Jehangir Soli Sorabjee, son of former attorney general Soli Sorabjee and an honorary consultant physician at Bombay Hospital, is the sole shareholder in Moonglow Investments Global Ltd, an offshore entity incorporated in the British Virgin Islands on November 24, 2010. On the same day, MF records show, he consented to act as a director of the company.
Sorabjee completed his MBBS from the Grant Medical College in the UK and his Master’s in Internal Medicine. Subsequently he worked in the UK for five years at different hospitals and obtained a postgraduate medical diploma and diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene from London.
He is currently professor of medicine and head of the department of medicine at the Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences. He is also a postgraduate teacher at the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences and has authored a number of academic publications and text book chapters.
Sorabjee is also a celebrated photographer and images from his book of aerial pictures of Mumbai — Above Bombay — have been included as part of exhibitions at the Venice Biennale in 2006, The Tate Modern in 2007 and the Canary Islands Biennale in 2009.

6-
Mohan Lal Lohia –
Offshore entities: Venton Group Ltd, Lohia Charitable Foundation
Location: BVI & Panama

Well-known industrialist Mohan Lal Lohia is Chairman Emeritus of Indo Rama Synthetics and Chairman of Indo Rama Holdings Ltd. MF documents show that Lohia is the “first director” of Venton Group Ltd, registered in the BVI in 2007 with its objectives listed as “broad” and India address as Greater Kailash in New Delhi. In November 2012, MF was instructed via email to let Venton “die a natural death”.

MF records show that Lohia also set up the Lohia Charitable Foundation, an NGO, in Panama in January 2010 with a corpus of $10,000. Apart from Lohia, his grandson Amit Lohia and daughter-in-law Seema Lohia are listed as members of the foundation’s family council. There are no closure documents available for the foundation, with records listing communication, such as requests for copies of incumbency certificates, till as late as July 2015.

7-
Zavaray Poonawalla
Offshore entity: Stallast Ltd
Location: BVI
Brother of billionaire Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, Zavaray heads the managing committee of the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) and is on the board of four companies that deal with real estate, construction, hospitality and stud farms.
MF records list Zavaray, wife Behroze and daughters Simone and Delna, as directors of Stallast Ltd set up in 2013 in the British Virgin Islands. Stallast was struck off the records in 2014.

8- 
Rajendra Patil

Offshore entity: Elgenburg Ltd
Location: BVI
Rajendra Patil is the son-in-law of veteran Congressman and Karnataka Horticulture Minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa, a businessman and educationist who owns medical and engineering colleges in Davangere.

Patil runs a sugar export company and is also involved with energy, aviation, textile, education and Internet firms run by the Shivashankarappa family. According to MF records, Patil and two associates, Sanjay Nadgouda and Shashank Angadi, set up an offshore firm called Elgenburg Ltd in the British Virgin Islands in 2007 with an initial shareholding of 50,000 shares with Patil holding 22,500 of them.

The records show a commercial complex owned by the Shivashankarappa family in Bengaluru as Patil’s address in India.

9-
Anil Vasudeva Salgaocar

No. of offshore entities: 11
Location: BVI
A Goa-based mining baron and former MLA, Anil Vasudeva Salgaocar had set up 11 offshore companies with the help of MF, mostly in the BVI, with a majority of them being incorporated between 2004-2005 with Vasco da Gama in south Goa as the India address. Salgaocar, 75, died in Singapore in January following illness.

These offshore entities include Ling Tao Trading Ltd, Horizon Villa Investments Ltd, GBA Shipping Ltd, Jamana Finance Limited, GBA Minerals Limited, Nickon Enterprises Ltd, General Harvest International Ltd and Crown Bright Trading Ltd, among others, with records showing that a majority were set up between 2004-2005. Records show that many of the 11 companies were struck off MF’s lists in 2007 and 2008.
Anil Salgaocar’s son Arjun Anil is also listed as a director in some companies. In 2007, Anil Salgaocar did not disclose these offshore companies to the Election Commission when he contested and won the assembly polls from Sanvordem.

10-
Indira Sivasailam and Mallika Srinivasan

Offshore entities: Stanbridge Company Ltd
Location: BVI
Indira Sivasailam, who died in December 2008, at the age of 73, was the wife of Anantharamakrishnan Sivasailam, chairman of Amalgamations Group. She was survived by her husband and two daughters — Mallika Srinivasan, chairman and CEO of Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE), the third largest tractor manufacturer in the world, and the late Jayshree Venkatraman, director of TAFE (Power Source Division). Mallika is the wife of Venu Srinivasan, chairman of TVS Motors.

MF records list Indira as a shareholder in Stanbridge Company Ltd, which was incorporated in 1999 in the BVI. Records show that shares of the older couple were transferred to their daughters in 2011 and eventually, in October, 2011 Malika Srinivasan relinquished her shares “for personal reasons” to one Ved Prakash Ahuja. They also show that shares of another BVI entity, Auto Engineering Development and Research Limited, were transferred to Stanbridge. MF records show the company was struck off the records in September 2015.

11-
Tabasum & Abdul Rashid Mir -
Offshore entity: Mondale SA
Location: Panama

MF records show Abdul Rashid Mir, Cottage Industries Exposition (CIE) founder and CEO, floated Mondale SA on September 4, 2002, in Panama with an authorized capital of $10,000, divided into 100 shares. MF provided three directors and a secretary. The bearer shares were issued ten days later — on September 14 — and Mir’s son Mujeeb subscribed “as shareholder to the entire authorised share capital of the company” on October 8.

On December 2, 2002, Abdul Rashid Mir got a Power of Attorney from Mondale SA to open a bank account with Banque Baring Brothers (Suisse) SA. In account opening documents, Mujeeb Mir, with a Bangkok address, was shown as owner of financial assets of the company while the signature card had the name Abdul Rashid Mir.

On January 31, 2005, Mujeeb was murdered in Mauritius. Five months later, on July 11, his parents, Abdul Rashid Mir and Tabasum Mir, were appointed additional directors in Mondale SA. According to MF documents, on July 5, 2007, Mir met “Mr Woernle of Banque Baring Brothers Sturdza SA, Geneva, Switzerland… to cancel, with immediate effect, the discretionary management power granted to the bank over the company’s account with the Bank”.

In March 2011, Mondale SA replaced Geneva-based law firm Secretan Troyanov with Swiss LLC, Geneva, as its administrator. The last available record of the company in MF documents is dated January 15, 2013, when it paid the annual fee as a private company to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Panama. Tabasum Mir is a director in 17 Indian companies including CIE which, on its website, claims businesses worth billions in silk carpets alone. The company runs outlets in locations such as Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Mauritius, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

12-
Amitabh Bachchan – Bollywood Superstar
Two years before he launched Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (ABCL) in 1995, the Bollywood legend was appointed director in at least four offshore shipping companies.

Records of international law firm Mossack Fonseca, reviewed by The Indian Express, and subsequent inquiries show that the four companies, in which Bachchan was appointed director, were registered in tax havens — one in the British Virgin Islands and three in the Bahamas in November 1993.

The authorised capital of these companies — Sea Bulk Shipping Company Ltd (BVI), Lady Shipping Ltd, Treasure Shipping Ltd and Tramp Shipping Ltd (Bahamas) — ranged between a modest $5,000-50,000 but they traded in ships worth millions of dollars.

Bachchan was also managing director of all four companies. The other directors were representatives of firms that provide corporate and financial services

13-
Aishwarya Rai  - Bollywood Star
Aishwarya Rai was director, shareholder of firm in British Virgin Islands.
Her father, mother and brother were registered in 2005 as directors.
Her status was later changed to shareholder before the company was dissolved in 2008.
The Indian Express accessed MF documents which show that Rai, her father Kotedadi Ramana Rai Krishna Rai, mother Vrinda Krishna Raj Rai and brother Aditya Rai were appointed on May 14, 2005, as directors of Amic Partners Limited — with an initial authorised capital of $50,000.

Records maintained by Mossack Fonseca (MF), the Panamanian firm that helps set up offshore entities, reveal that for at least three years, Aishwarya Rai, and her family were part of a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven.

On June 18, 2005, an Amic board resolution changed Rai’s status to shareholder

In 2008, a year after Rai married Abhishekh Bachchan, the process to wind up the company was initiated, show records


14-
Iqbal Mirchi

15-
KP Singh - DLF group
Mossack Fonseca documents list K P Singh, his wife, son, daughter and their family as shareholders; Singh is labelled as a ‘politically exposed person
Kushal Pal Singh, promoter of India’s largest real estate group DLF, acquired a company in British Virgin Islands, a tax haven, in which his wife Indira KP Singh is a co-shareholder, according to documents of Mossack Fonseca (MF), the Panamanian law firm that helps set up offshore entities.
Internal files of MF, accessed by The Indian Express, show that the real estate baron has been described as a “politically exposed person (PEP)” by Mossack Fonseca & Co (BVI) Ltd, the registered agent for Singh’s offshore entity called Willder Ltd. Singh has been the Honorary Consul General of Monaco in Delhi since October 1990

MF records reveal that at least two other companies were set up by their family members in 2012, one each by son Rajiv Singh and daughter Pia Singh with their immediate family as shareholders.

Singh family’s three offshore entities — with MF as the registered agent — together hold almost Rs 67 crore or $10 million in shares, records show. Singh was ranked 130 in Forbes’ list of the world’s richest with $7.3 billion in 2011.

MF records reveal that Singh and Indira KP Singh initially remitted funds in two tranches in September 2010 and October 2011 to buy Willder shares — Singh contributed $676,400 and Indira Singh $ 714,400

Rajiv Singh and Pia Singh, too, set up offshore entities with their own family members as shareholders. Alfa Investments Global Ltd is an offshore company registered in British Virgin Islands with Pia Singh, her husband, Dhiraj “Timmy” Sarna, and their children Jai Sarna and Tara Singh Sarna as shareholders. Pia Singh, till May 2015, was a whole-time director in the flagship company DLF, but is now only a non-executive director. Timmy Sarna, who also belongs to a business family with interests in real estate, is the managing director of DLF Brands Ltd, a DLF Group company.

Rajiv Singh, who is vice chairman of the DLF Group, is a shareholder along with his wife Kavita and two daughters Anushka and Savitri Devi in another BVI company Beckon Investments Group Ltd. Incidentally, Savitri is married to former Union Cabinet Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s son.

16-
Sameer Gehlaut –Indiabulls
Indiabulls owner hols UK realty via Bahamas, Jersey.
Sameer Gehlaut acquired at least three top London properties through family entities in Karnal, Delhi, Bahamas, Jersey and UK. Currently being developed as residential and hotel projects, these properties are owned by the SG family Trust set up in October 2012.

16-
Vinod Adani of Adani group
Months after the formation of the Adani Group’s flagship company Adani Exports Limited — now Adani Enterprises Limited — in 1993, industrialist Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod Shantilal Shah Adani set up a company in the Bahamas in January 1994.

Vinod looks after the Adani Group’s overseas operations and his son Pranav is a director of Adani Enterprises Limited.

GA International Inc was incorporated in the Bahamas by Vinod S Adani on January 4, 1994.
Vinod and his wife Ranjanben were its two directors and held equal stake in the company through a bearer share each.
During its 11-year stint as the registered agent, Mossack Fonseca was asked by GA International Inc to issue Certificates of Incorporation and Good Standing on several occasions.

17-
Anurag Kejriwal, the former chief of the Delhi unit of Loksatta Party
No. of offshore entities: 3 plus 2 foundations
Location: British Virgin Islands (BVI), Panama
Anurag Kejriwal was the Delhi president of Lok Satta Party before being expelled following a purported sting operation by a TV channel ahead of the 201 4 Lok Sabha elections. MF records list him as a director in at least three offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and show that he floated at least two private foundations in Panama. He is also shown as holding power of attorney of another BVI company.
The Lok Satta was founded in 2006 by Jayaprakash Narayan, a former IAS officer. Kejriwal led the party’s unit in Delhi and was a member of its National Steering Committee but was expelled after the sting operation in April 2014. He lives in Delhi, has business interests in Kolkata.
Kejriwal is a director in at least three offshore companies — Newington Group Trading Ltd, Nedstar Commercial Ltd and Krims Investments Inc – all registered in BVI. He also holds power of attorney with all rights in another company called Biscay Overseas Ltd, also registered in BVI.
The Kejriwal family has also floated two private foundations — The Nedstar Foundation and The Pruak Foundation. Nedstar Commercial also entered into a trade finance agreement with BNP Paribas (Suisse) SA to partly fund the sale and purchase of goods on September 3, 2007.

Anurag and wife Uttara Kejriwal are primary beneficiaries of the Nedstar Foundation and Pruak Foundation. Both foundations had initial assets of $10,000, and the final beneficiary was Priyavrata Kejriwal, the couple’s son, a minor.
Kejriwal, according to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs data, is a director in three companies — Anurag Intex (Chem) Pvt Ltd, Prawnex Seafoods International Ltd and Sucant Investments Pvt Ltd. Uttara is a director in two of these companies — Anurag Intex and Prawnex Seafoods. All the three companies are “active”, as per the data.

Anurag Intex, headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal, is also a shareholder in BVI-registered Nedstar Commercial Limited. Anurag, Uttara and Tara Kejriwal are the other shareholders in Nedstar Commercial Ltd.

18-
Ashwani Kumar Mehra -
No. of offshore entities: 7
Location: Bahamas and BVI
Owner of Mehrasons Jewellers, Ashwani Kumar Mehra’s corporate profile lists his sons, Deepak Mehra and Navin Mehra, as partners in his jewellery empire.
Since 1999, the family has registered seven offshore companies in the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands. Among them, PTC Group Ltd is shown to be either a secretary or shareholder in the other companies.
Mossack Fonseca (MF) records show that apart from Mehra, wife Mala Rani and their two sons, two of these offshore entities — Maxhill Holdings Ltd and Stonebay International Ltd — have listed his daughters-in-law, Pooja and Shalini, as directors. Romi Sahai, a director with Minerva Trust, is shown as a director in some of these companies. Records show Mehra’s India address as New Delhi’s South Extension in public corporate records and Panchsheel Park in registration records, incorporation data and share certificates.

Records for one of the entities, Stonebay International Ltd, show MF officials reminding the Mehras about providing a declaration of their source of funds and wealth. The reply, submitted in writing purportedly by Navin Mehra, states that the company deals with “property holding” with “borrowings/loans” as the source of funds, with a specific entry on borrowings from Maxhill Holdings Ltd.

MF records linked to PTC Group Ltd show that in December 2009, the company transferred 2,398 shares to Ashwani Kumar Mehra, with each share valued at a premium of $499. Records also show that the registered agents were changed more than once for entities such as Univi Corporate Limited, AEH Services Ltd and Asian Investment and Marketing Company Ltd.

19-
Gautam and Karan Thapar -
Offshore entity: Charlwood Foundation, Nikom International Foundation
Location: Panama
Gautam and Karan Thapar, sons of Brij Mohan Thapar, took control of Crompton Greaves Limited after the division of the Thapar Group in 1999. Karan ran Crompton Greaves from 2000 as a director while Gautam worked with uncle Lalit Mohan Thapar of Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT).
In 2005, Lalit Mohan handed control of BILT to Gautam. The same year, MF records show, Gautam and Karan set up a private foundation each in Panama. Lalit Mohan died in January 2007, leaving his shares and voting rights to Gautam. Karan quit Crompton Greaves in May 2007 and in November that year, Gautam launched Avantha Group which now controls both companies. Karan owns EICL Limited, along with Greaves Cotton Ltd and Premium Transmission Ltd.

MF documents show Gautam set up Charlwood Foundation in July 2005 with an initial endowment of US $10,000. His wife Stephanie (from Germany) was the principal beneficiary. As advisor, Gautam retained the right of nominating any person “from time to time” as principal beneficiary.

Records show Karan set up Nikom International Foundation in October 2005, appointing himself advisor with similar powers. He named “Miss Maria del Socorro Gonzalez” as principal beneficiary.

20-
Satish Govind Samtani, Vishlav Bahadur and Harish Mohnani
Offshore entities: Design & Quality Ltd and Trileon Limited
Location: BVI
MF records list Satish, Vishlav and Harish as directors in two offshore companies in the BVI, Design & Quality Ltd, incorporated on December 4, 2008, and Trileon Limited, in November 2007.

Records show that Design & Quality Limited was registered in December 2008 and the process for its dissolution began in July 2015. They show, however, that it would be struck off MF registers only on April 30, 2016. Trileon Limited, with Bahadur and Samtani as directors, was struck off the records in 2012.
Bahadur, from Lucknow, now lives in Bengaluru and runs VNS Corporation which exports garments and has an Indian brand called Republic of Spiel. Samtani, also a resident of Bengaluru, lists an association with Trileon Ltd, China, since June 2007 in a social media profile. Mohnani is currently the managing director of the Pro Apparel Division of BSE-listed garment exporter and sportswear distributor Cravatex Ltd.

21-
Gautam Seengal
Offshore entity: Jeff Morgan Capital Ltd
Location: BVI

An investment management and IT consultant based in Panchkula, Gautam Seengal introduced himself to MF staff as head of a “leading conglomerate with interests in infrastructure, information technology, hospitality and financial services”. Records show he claimed that he was linked to a $400 million private equity fund. Besides registering two offshore entities in his name, he solicited advice for opening others for his clients.

Seengal has closed down his Manimajra office listed in records, with a new office under construction in Mohali. Along with his father, Suresh Seengal, he first opened a BVI company called Imedia Ventures Ltd in June 2006 — the name was changed to Jeff Morgan Capital Ltd in November 2009.

22-
Prabhash Sankhla
Offshore entity: Lotus Horizon SA
Location: Panama
Prabhash Sankhla is a retired Madhya Pradesh government employee who lives alone in Indore after his wife passed away three years ago. MF records list his name, along with address, as a director in Lotus Horizon SA, incorporated in July 2012 in Panama.
The other two directors in the company are his daughter Sheetal Singh and son-in-law Rajeev Singh, both Canadian nationals based in Toronto.

23-
Vinod Ramchandra Jadhav
Offshore entities: A number of firms
Location: BVI
Vinod Ramchandra Jadhav is the chairman of Pune-based Sava Healthcare, with manufacturing facilities in Ahmednagar and Bangalore. The company is involved in research and development, and manufacture of healthcare products and veterinary products.
MF records show that Jadhav is listed as a director or shareholder in a clutch of offshore firms, mostly set up in the BVI between 2010 to 2015. They include Sava Portfolio Holdings Limited, Easycall Holdings Ltd, STF Portfolio Holding Limited, RIM International Corp and MaplePharm Holdings Inc. Liquidation proceedings have been initiated for at least two of these entities.

24-
Ashok Malhotra -
Offshore entity: E&P Onlookers Limited
Location: BVI

Former India cricketer Ashok Malhotra, who runs a cricket academy in Kolkata, was the shareholder and director of E&P Onlookers Ltd, a company set up in the British Virgin Islands on September 25, 2008, according to MF records. Sandeep Rastogi, a British citizen, was the company’s first director. Malhotra, who played seven Test matches and 20 ODIs, became the director of E&P Onlookers Ltd on February 18, 2009. Sandeep Rastogi resigned and transferred all five shares to Malhotra, records show.
Malhotra was named the coach of the Bengal cricket team in July 2013 and had briefly coached the Indian team after John Wright’s departure.

25-
Ranjeev Dahuja, Kapil Sain Goel -
Offshore entities: Bealls International Corp
Location: BVI

Panchkula-based Ranjeev Dahuja and Kapil Sain Goel run Berkeley Automobiles, with dealerships of Hyundai and Tata Motors, in Chandigarh.

MF records list both as directors of Bealls International Corp which was set up in the BVI in June 2012. Both have equal shareholding of 5,000 shares each, and their passports and Panchkula addresses are on record. The company, is, however shown to have been wound up in October 2013.

26-
Vivek Jain
Offshore entities: Sacvinam Global SA, Radiant World Holdings
Location: BVI, Hong Kong

Vivek Jain, a B. Com graduate, runs an agriculture equipment store in Madhya Pradesh. MF records show that he is a director in Sacvinam Global SA, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands in 2010, and a shareholder in Radiant World Holdings, registered in Hong Kong in 2011.

Records show that Jain held 79,000 shares in 2010 of Sacvinam, which has another director named Nahar Pinkesh. Radiant is listed as a shareholder of Sacvinam Global SA and a document dated December 2, 2011 shows that Jain was allotted 8.2 lakh shares of the company. His address in Mandsaur is reflected accurately in MF records.

27-
IPLPune Panama Papers –
The Indian Express on Thursday reported that 10 members had entered into a pact to form P-Vision Sports to bid for IPL Pune franchise, in which 15 percent was earmarked for the offshore firm, Obdurate Ltd in British Virgin Islands. It was shut after failing to win the bid

In the sports consortium, the largest stake of 33 percent was held by the Chordia family, 4.5 percent each by Kareena and Karisma, 9 percent each by Saif and Mumbai resident Manoj S. Jain and 25 percent by Dhoot through two group companies. Obdurate was earmarked 15 percent.

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Vijay Mallya - Non Resident Indian
Vijay Mallya directly linked to firm in Virgin Islands
a British Virgin Islands firm - Venture New Holding Limited which has been operational from February 15, 2006, is linked directly to Vijay Mallya, and not to any of his companies.

The operations of Venture New Holding were carried out from 3 Vittal Mallya Road in Bengaluru, which is Mallya's residential address. His offshore has a direct link to a firm named Porticullus Trust Net, which, according to ICIJ, is a 'one-stop solution' for the setting up of offshore accounts. Porticullus Trust Net has its origins in Cook Islands - an island group in South Pacific. And, protecting Mallya's identity until the leaks was Sharecorp Limited, which operated as a nominee shareholder.

Nominee shareholders are third-party firms not related to the client operating the offshore firm and are introduced to uphold client secrecy.

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Umesh Shahra-
Umesh Shahra is the son of Indore-headquartered Ruchi Group of Industries Chairman Kailash Chandra Shahra.
UMESH SHAHRA, promoter director of the $6-billion Ruchi Group of Industries, has floated at least eight offshore entities and two private foundations in Panama. The two foundations were set up in 2008 and 2009
He is also promoter of Revati Cement Pvt Ltd
The two trusts that the Shahras set up in Panama are The Threewells Foundation, the public deed of which was signed on October 1, 2009, and One World Trust, which was set up on October 22, 2008.
Both the trusts are active with Mossack Fonseca Trust (Mossfon Trust) generating annual invoices until March 2015.
He heads group companies Indian Steel Corporation Ltd, RSAL Steel Private Limited, Ruchi Global Limited, Ruchi Acroni Industries and Avantee Mega Food Park Ltd. He is a director in over a dozen companies in India.
The principal beneficiaries of the One World Trust too are Umesh, Neeta or Suyash Shahra.
One World Trust’s annual assets as on December 31, 2013, included the shares of Eris Incorporation Ltd, another offshore entity.

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Satya Prakash Gupta - NRI
Overseas entity: Sterling Global Partners Limited
Location: Ras Al Khaimah (UAE)

Delhi businessman Satya Prakash Gupta set up Sterling Global Partners Limited in August 2015 through financial service providers Anglo Manx Trust Company Limited and Mossack Fonseca (MF) in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In Delhi, Gupta runs M/s Sterling Security System, “a service providing company for creating business opportunities in India for multinational companies worldwide”, and M/s Sterling Exports. He is also the president of GT Karnal Road CETP Society.

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Amrita Jhaveri
Offshore entity: Amaya Limited
Location: Seychelles
Art diva opened Seychelles company to hold ‘asset in Switzerland’

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Gargi Barooah -
Overseas entity: Walker Foundation
Location: Panama

Gargi Barooah, daughter-in-law of the late Dr Hemendra Prasad Barooah, Padma Shri and the grand old man of Assam’s tea industry, was the sole beneficiary of Walker Foundation set up in Panama in April 2010.
Gargi moved to the US with her minor daughter in 2010.

Both Gargi and her daughter are shareholders in BA Industries, the family group of companies that controls more than half a dozen tea gardens in Assam. Gargi has also served as a non-executive director in B&A Packaging India Ltd and B&A Multiwall Packaging Ltd since February 2008.

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Ankita Sehgal & Nimitt Rai Tiwari
Overseas entity: Suncell Holding SA
Location: British Virgin Islands

Nimitt Rai Tiwari and Ankita Sehgal, husband and wife, together owned Suncell Holding SA incorporated in the British Virgin Islands on September 16, 2011
The two married in November 2011.
The couple are directors in Damodar Sunidhi Ventures Pvt Ltd, a Delhi company incorporated in 2013. They were also directors in another Delhi company — Xclucity Business Solutions Pvt Ltd set up in 2010 — which is now defunct. Ankita Sehgal owns and runs M/s Trade Intex, a “wholesaler/distributor/supplier of iron ore” in Delhi.

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Bhaskaran Raveendran
Offshore entity: SVS Investment Inc
Mossack Fonseca records show that Bhaskaran has been associated with SVS Investment Inc as a power of attorney holder and to act as a manager and facilitator. He thus did not incorporate the offshore company, and was not a director. The company was registered in August 2006, and was “inactivated” in January 2014



Suggested Reading –

Panama Papers List names of 140 world politicians with tax heaven accounts


Reality views by sm –

Monday, April 4, 2016

Tags – Black Money Indians List Panama Files Leaks