Pandora Paper Leak: Government Promises Probe

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has uncovered the secret assets, investments, and financial dealings of hundreds of wealthy people, celebrities, and politicians around the world under the name ‘Pandora Papers’.

This is expected to be the biggest leak in recent times. Pandora’s leaked documents contain details of more than 300 Indians. Many of them are financial criminals and former MPs. They are already under the surveillance of the investigating agencies. Many other Indians on the list have denied these false allegations.

Leading industrialist Anil Ambani is reported to have assets in 18 countries. Among them is former cricketer, Bharat Ratna recipient Sachin Tendulkar. However, Tendulkar escaped the trap as he had already liquidated the assets.

 Pandora papers documents detail the assets and financial affairs of King Jordan, Presidents of Ukraine, Kenya, and Ecuador, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair.

Biocon promoter Kiran Majumdar Shah’s husband set up a trust for insider trading. Neerav Modi, a diamond trader who fled abroad after sinking banks in India, has set up the Sister Trust. He set up the trust a month before he fled.

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King Abdullah II of Jordan has amassed $ 10 billion in assets in the United States and the United Kingdom

Chaudhry Munis Elahi, a friend of Imran Khan and a leader of the PML-Q party, has been implicated in corruption.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expensive assets in Monaco.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blaine and his wife have bought an office in London. 123,12,000 worth of stamp duty was evaded in the transaction.

The Pandora Papers case is being overseen by a multi-agency group headed by the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), an official statement clarified on Monday.

The CBDT said in a statement that the government would take the matter into consideration and the relevant investigative agencies would investigate the cases and take appropriate action as per the law. Representatives of the ED, RBI, and FIUs will play a key role in the team investigating these cases.

So far only the names of a few Indians (individuals as well as legal entities) have appeared in the media. ICIJ tweeted that it had revealed the financial secrets of the wealthy based on the 1.2 crore documents they had collected.

 The ICIJ website also did not release names or details of all the companies. Information will be released in stages on the ICIJ website.

ICIJ stated that most people on the list have created shell companies to hide black money and secretly hoard assets. This includes people from the United States, India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and other countries.

 The structured data linked to the Pandora Papers investigation indicates that it will only be released in its offshore leaks database in the coming days. The conspiracy was hatched by 600 journalists from more than 150 news organizations in 117 countries after examining 1.20 crore financial transaction documents. The total amount of information analyzed is 2.94 terabytes.

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