2,000 Indian names in fresh Panama leaks

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ) latest exposé on the Panama Papers revealed the names of 2,000 individuals, entities and addresses with links to India and having offshore companies in tax havens.

Some of the big names which have cropped in the latest list are Essar Power, Ravikant Ruia, VLCC, Binani Cements and Pallonji Shapoorji Misty (the name of Shapoorji Pallonji Group chairman and largest shareholder in Tata group is spelled as Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry).

ICIJ said that it was publishing the names as they were typed in the leaked records. “This means that there could be multiple spellings or even misspellings in how names are listed,” it said.

However, ICIJ said that it doesn’t intend to suggest or imply that any persons, companies or other entities “included in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly”.

A search for India displays around 22 offshore entities, 1,046 officers or individual links, 42 intermediaries and as many as 828 addresses within the country. These addresses vary from tony and posh locations of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to mofussil locations like that in Haryana’s Sirsa, Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur and state capital Bhopal and those in north-eastern states.

The searchable database published by ICIJ allows users to explore the networks of companies and “people that used — and sometimes abused — the secrecy of offshore locales with the help of Mossack Fonseca and other intermediaries”. The leaked data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015.

The government has already set up a a special multi-agency group to probe and take action on the Panama Papers after the first list with 500 Indian names was published. The special investigation team (SIT) on black money is also investigating names revealed in the Panama Papers.

On being contacted for the implications of the newly-released list, a top functionary of the SIT told this newspaper: “We have not received any intimation officially. The issue is being looked at by a multi-agency group, which gives periodic information to us as well as the PMO. So we are still in the process of collecting the relevant information. And in case of illegalities, notices will be issued.”

ICIJ has published a searchable database that strips away the secrecy of nearly 214,000 offshore entities created in 21 jurisdictions, from Nevada to Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands.