Pandora Papers: 300 Indians, global leaders, celebrities, industrialists named  

An investigation published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Sunday shed light on a long list of state heads, industrialists, celebrities and sportspersons who have amassed millions in secret offshore assets. The ‘Pandora Papers’ investigation looks into some 12 million documents from 14 different financial services companies from across the world.

The Pandora Papers contain names of over 300 Indians, as well as the King of Jordan Abdullah II, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso, and former associates of both Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as per the investigation carried on by around 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries.

According to Indian Express that was part of the investigation, Anil Ambani who had declared bankruptcy in a UK court has 18 asset holding offshore companies. It added that Nirav Modi’s sister set up a trust a month before the fugitive diamantaire fled the country. Biocon promoter Kiran Mazumdar Shaw’s husband set up a trust with keys to a person who has been banned by the SEBI for insider trading, according to the report.

The investigation showed that several offshore entity owners adapted to the post-Panama Papers scene. After the Panama Papers expose, several countries tightened regulations.

Many individuals opted for a rejig of their offshore accounts following the revelation of the Panama Papers. Sachin Tendulkar asked for the liquidation of his entity in the British Virgin Islands three months after Panama Papers, the report stated.

Samoa, Belize or the Cook Islands are some of the preferred tax havens, apart from larger tax havens like the British Virgin Islands or Panama.

The Pandora Papers revealed that the King of Jordan Abdullah II secretly amassed $100 million worth of property in the US and UK. The report also states that Indians who owe thousands of crores to banks, have moved a sizeable section of their assets to a maze of offshore companies.

Former Members of Parliament who have held public office in India have been named in the papers too. Over 700 Pakistanis, including some ministers and key members of Prime Minister Imran Khan's inner circle like Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Minister for Water Resources Moonis Elahi, Senator Faisal Vawda, the family of Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtiar were named in the Pandora Papers.

The Pandora Papers investigation is larger than the Panama Papers that rocked the world in 2016. While the Panama Papers came from the files of a single offshore services provider Mossack Fonseca, the Pandora Papers include a string of lawyers and middlemen. The latest bombshell ports through nearly 3 terabytes of data leaked from 14 different service providers doing business in 38 different jurisdictions in the world. The records date back to the 1970s, but most of the files span from 1996 to 2020.

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