Paradise Papers index: Here are all the stories
Paradise Papers, a cache of 13.4 million documents investigated by The Indian Express, reveals how two firms Bermuda’s Appleby and Singapore’s Asiaciti Trust helped the global rich and powerful move their money abroad.
What are the Paradise Papers? What do the Paradise Papers show? What is all the excitement about?
READ The Indian Express answers all your questions!
714 Indians have been listed in the Paradise Papers registries.
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Paradise Papers part II: Other Indian company owners in the list
The Paradise Papers, an investigation by The Indian Express, reveal how two firms Bermuda’s Appleby and Singapore’s Asiaciti with 19 tax havens across the world help the global rich and powerful, including from India, to move their money abroad.
This cache of 13.4 million documents represents data of 180 countries, of which India ranks 19th in terms of the number of names.
READ Biggest data leak reveals trails of Indian corporates in global secret tax havens
LIVE UPDATES Paradise Papers
Wanted in India for debt default and alleged financial irregularities, Vijay Mallya may have some more explaining to do. Here's what the Paradise Papers reveal
According to The Indian Express' investigation into the Paradise Papers, Dr Ashok Seth, chairman of Fortis-Escorts, was given shares by a Singapore-based company that manufactures stents in 2004, before the company went public. Subsequently, he prescribed these stents to his patients and cashed in on these shares.
READ Top doc, Fortis boss got shares from firm whose stents he used
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha had links with US company D.Light Design, which has a subsidiary in Cayman Islands in the Caribbean Sea.
READ MoS Jayant Sinha’s links with Omidyar in Appleby files
Corporate lobbyist Niira Radia is named in the Paradise Papers, investigated by The Indian Express, for being part of two offshore companies in Malta.
READ After tapping row, Nira Radia on board of two offshore firms
A company registered by Appleby in tax haven Mauritius invested in an Indian firm that is at the heart of a probe by CBI and ED into what is called the Rajasthan Ambulance scam. One of the founders of the firm is the son of Congress leader and former Union minister Vayalar Ravi.
READ Offshore firm invested in company at centre of Rajasthan ambulance scam
A year after he hosted the first edition of Kaun Banega Crorepati in 2000-01, Amitabh Bachchan became a shareholder of a digital media company incorporated in Bermuda in 2002. It’s not clear if the shareholding was disclosed to RBI.
READ Year after KBC, Big B was shareholder in Bermuda firm now shut
Elected to Rajya Sabha from Bihar in 2014 as a BJP member and considered one of the richest in the House, Ravindra Kishore Sinha, a former journalist who founded the private security service firm SIS or Security and Intelligence Services, heads a group which has two offshore entities.
READ Security firm of BJP Rajya Sabha MP Ravindra Kishore Sinha linked to two offshore entities
Appleby raised a red flag on supplying directors to Jindal’s Mauritius firms as the beneficial owner (Abhyuday Jindal) was of Indian nationality and investments were being made in India, there is the risk of ‘round tripping’.
READ Appleby raised red flags on supplying directors to Jindal’s Mauritius firms
Havells India floated over 50 subsidiaries beginning February 2000, most of them in tax havens, Appleby records show. In the 10 years leading up to 2015-16, revenues of HIL grew almost eight times from Rs 1,681 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 7,714 crore.
READ Electrical appliances major Havells set up offshore firms to push expansion
What is Appleby? It's a 119-year-old firm, which is a leading member of the global network of lawyers, accountants, bankers etc who set up and manage offshore companies and accounts for clients who want to avoid taxes or keep their finances under wraps.
READ Avoid tax, hide names, supply directors: Why the big guns love Appleby
When Veerappa Moily was Union Minister in the UPA government, his son Harsha Moily floated a company which received investments offshore firms. (Representational Image)
READ When Moily was Minister, offshore firms invested in son’s company
Mauritius-based QLearn sold 19,52,907 shares of Indian coaching class giant FIITJEE for over Rs 36 crore to Mumbai-based Ambit Group in July 2015, according to Appleby records.
Since the Ambit Group is an investee company of Qinvest (Qinvest has substantial stakes in Ambit), the 2015 transaction between QLearn and Ambit Capital Private Limited amount to sale of shares between its own companies.
READ Qatar firm invested in coaching giant FIITJEE via Mauritius
Queen Elizabeth II's name is also listed in files of offshore law firm Appleby. Her personal estate and portfolio, invested $7.5 million in Dover Street VI Cayman Fund LP in 2005, records show.
READ Also on secret list, her Royal Highness the Queen Elizabeth II
The Paradise Papers show that a major investor in Twitter and Facebook had financial ties to two Russian government-owned firms.
READ Kremlin-owned firms linked to major investments in Twitter, Facebook
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur L Ross Jr, a member of Donald Trump's Cabinet, retains a stake in the company that provides shipping for Russian President Vladimir Putin son-in-law and sanctioned oligarchs.
READ US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has stake in firm linked to Putin’s son-in-law
The company of Stephen R Bronfman, who helped raise funds for the Liberal Party, now headed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, helped moved millions of dollars offshore to avoid taxes in Canada, the US and Israel.
READ Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s election fundraiser may have broken laws
Appleby records show details of correspondence, agreements between Kalanidhi Maran's company Sun Direct and Astro, a Malaysian company. Further, NDTV News Ltd is also listed as a shareholder in the subscription agreement signed between the two companies.
READ Kalanithi Maran’s company was set to get Rs 563 crore when CBI moved in
Angad Paul, before he died in 2015, had routed money to India from Mauritius, primarily in the wind energy sector, according to Appleby records.
In the picture, Angad Paul (second from right) is seen with his wife Michelle (extreme right) and parents, Lord Swraj Paul and Aruna Paul.
READ Late Caparo scion took Mauritius route to harness India wind energy
Appleby records show Raghav Bahl's Network 18 had links with four offshore entities — three of which have been listed in balance sheets by the company as subsidiaries. (Picture source: Twitter/@Raghav_Bahl)
READ Appleby links Network 18 to four offshore entities
The Indian business family with the largest number of offshore entities in Appleby records are the Khemkas of the SUN group, with nearly 100 entities mostly in the British Virgin Islands and New Jersey.
READ Second largest company in Appleby files is Khemka’s SUN, with 100 plus firms
The Hinduja Group, with revenues of over $25 billion, is named in the Paradise Papers. Appleby called them "some of the most powerful" in the world.
READ FULL STORY Questions raised, Hindujas took trust route to waive debt to group company
Through a complex web of transactions, the Essel Group, promoted by Subhash Chandra, repaid $55 million in debt and raised $100 million for Veria Lifestyles.
This is the story Promoter firms pledge Zee shares to raise funds via offshore route
Also read Appleby waved a red flag on companies owned by Subhash Chandra
According to Appleby records, The Hindustan Times Group owned by the Bhartias set up a company in Bermuda, Go4i.com (Bermuda) Ltd. The company was set up through HTBC Ltd, one of the three shareholders of the offshore entity.
READ Hindustan Times Group set up firm in Bermuda, showed Rs 7 crore loss
Meanwhile, the government on Monday ordered a probe into the Paradise Papers, which will be carried out by the multi-agency group which is investigating the Panama Papers. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, speaking to The Indian Express, said secrecy has now been "smashed".
(Reuters Photo/File)
READ Finance Minister Arun Jaitley orders action; all to be probed, says tax chief
According to Appleby records, Ishwari Prasad Khaitan, the promoter of Loop Telecom, managed two offshore trusts for Essar Group's Ruia brothers, Sashi and Ravi in the Cayman Islands.
READ Via offshore firms, Khaitan managed Ruia family trusts
Nimmagadda Prasad, an industrialist from Andhra Pradesh, routed money from various Mauritius-based companies into India, allegedly as investments into YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy's companies, Appleby records show.
READ Businessman accused in Jagan Mohan’s CBI case created an offshore network
Appleby records show that real estate major, Hiranandani Group, incorporated a company in Bermuda in 2008 with the stated purpose “to own and or operate aircraft registered in Bermuda”.
READ Month before being booked for PF fraud, Hiranandanis floated offshore firm
ICICI Bank sought advice from Appleby after construction company DSC Ltd defaulted on a loan repayment of $135 million.
READ FULL STORY
Prominent Indian diamond business family, the Mehtas, appear in Appleby records for seeking help to intercede in a bank fraud that targeted one of its offshore entities.
READ On all black money lists, leading diamond firm Rosy Blue is back
Sanmar Group acquired Trust Chemicals Industries (TCI) of Egypt through its Cayman Islands subsidiary Pharaoh Chemicals Limited (PCL), which took a loan of $300 million from ICICI Bank for the acquisition, according to Appleby records.
READ Appleby applauds $565-million loan from Indian banks during meltdown
According to Appleby records, the Essar Group was the guarantor for Huawei International Pte Ltd and SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd that loaned Rs 200 crore to Loop Telecom Limited.
READ Essar was guarantor when Loop got Huawei supplies, Kolkata loan
The Videocon Group is also named in the Paradise Papers. Here's why
According to Applyeby records, SNC-Lavalin, a Montreal-based engineering major, used Appleby to register a new company and further its interests in bidding for National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) projects. The Canadian company was first booked by the CBI in the year 2008 in a case where Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was also named, who cleared of the charges in August this year.
READ/Full coverage Read Booked by CBI, SNC-Lavalin went to Appleby to float firm, get National Highway projects
Offshore legal firm Appleby records show that six years before his death, in the year 2010, mining baron Anil Salgaocar partnered son-in-law Gautam Radia and Malaysian investor Shanmuga Rethenam to enter iron ore mining business in Swaziland. As per the records Shanmuga Rethenam approached Anil Salgaocar through Gautam Radia in 2010, on the availability of iron ore in Swaziland.
READ/Full coverage Appleby records lift veil on rift among stakeholders in Africa mining project
In October 2010, global IT company, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, approached Appleby to set up CTS Isle of Man (CTS IoM), which aimed to provide service to Lloyds TSB, a British bank. After two years of registration, the company started the process of shutting down the firm. It was finally dissolved in the year 2014.
READ/Full coverage Before winding it up, Cognizant waived loans to its Isle of Man entity
Owner of merchant vessel, INS Vindhyagiri approached offshore legal firm Appleby to set up "8 Isle of Man companies to hold 8 vessels" to "limit liability" and ringference assets, weeks after Indian Navy blamed MV Nordlake for its sinking, The two vessels were involved in a collision on January 30, 2011, when the former was entering the Mumbai dockyard.
READ/Full coverage Ship owner facing Navy claim went offshore
Sanjay Chhabra, owner of burger chains in India, entered into a joint venture with a UK firm which invested in India through Mauritius with the help of offshore legal firm Appleby. As per the records, Dolomite Restaurants and Sierra Nevada Restaurants Pvt Ltd owned by Chhabra, are are joint venture companies with UK-based International market Management (UK) Ltd.
READ/Full coverage Restaurant king Sanjay Chhabra takes Mauritius route to reach India
Gynaecologist Mala Arora and anthologist Narinder Pal, a Faridabad-based doctor couple, were listed as shareholders of WorldCare Limited (Bermuda), a company set up in June 1996. The couple, who have been running an IVF centre in Sector 14 since mid-1990s. When contacted, the couple denied any knowledge of the company.
READ/Full coverage Doctor couple in Appleby records