Panama Papers List LIVE Updates: In the new set of over 1.2 million documents, at least 12,000 of them are linked to Indians.
‘Panama Papers: The Aftermath‘ is a fresh investigation by The Indian Express, in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, of Indian individuals and entities who park and move their money in and out of safe havens. The new set of papers reveals how Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which serviced their accounts, scrambled to respond to an unprecedented global crackdown. In the new set of over 1.2 million documents, at least 12,000 of them are linked to Indians.
This second lot of the Panama Papers also highlights details of offshore companies incorporated by a clutch of Indian businessmen who did not figure in the 2016 leak. These include Ajay Bijli, owner of PVR cinemas, and members of his family; Kavin Bharti Mittal, CEO of Hike Messenger and son of Sunil Mittal; and, Jalaj Ashwin Dani, son of Asian Paints promoter Ashwin Dani.
The fresh investigation of Indian individuals and entities reveals how Mossack Fonseca, which serviced their accounts, scrambled to respond to an unprecedented global crackdown.
The latest tranche of Panama Papers has unearthed new details of offshore holdings by the family of Iqbal Mirchi, who was once wanted by Mumbai Police and died in London five years ago. These documents reveal more details about Country Property Ltd, a British Virgin Islands (BVI) entity which was investigated by The Indian Express during the 2016 data leak linked to Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. Country was incorporated in 2010 by Iqbal Mirchi’s wife, Hajra Iqbal Memon, and their two sons, Junaid Iqbal Memon and Asif Iqbal Memon.
New records investigated by The Indian Express show that the Khemka family, which had set up over hundred offshore entities incorporated by Bahamas law firm Appleby in the Paradise Papers revelations had similar ties to Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca.
Kolkata businessman Shishir K Bajoria, promoter of SK Bajoria Group with an annual turnover of $200 million, rushed to update Mossack Fonseca’s records two days after The Indian Express contacted him with queries on his beneficial ownership of an offshore firm in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) during the Panama Papers investigation.
In the weeks and months that following the Panama Papers leak, Mossack Fonseca employees frantically emailed bankers, accountants and lawyers – the professionals who had hired the firm to set up shell companies for wealthy clients who wanted to remain anonymous – in an attempt to close the gaps in its recordkeeping. Those intermediaries responded with panic and fury.
Around the time the Panama Papers uncovered the secret world of Mossack Fonseca, offshore companies linked to the Bijli family of PVR Cinema fame continued to do business with the Panamanian law firm. A pioneer in multiplex cinemas in India, Ajay Bijli, along with wife Selena and son Aamer, beneficially owned an offshore company set up to hold a property in the UK.