Even as speculations run rife that the Prime Minister intends to propose the name of Amitabh Bachchan as the next President of India, the Bachchan family was gobsmacked this morning with a right royal controversy.
A front-page report in the Indian Express, headlined, “Indians in global list of secret firms in tax havens”, has sent shock waves across the nation.
The biggest leak of over 11 million documents of a Panama law firm features over 500 Indians linked to offshore firms, according to an eight-month-old investigation by the Indian Express team.
The leaked records show individuals who have paid the law firm, and bought benefits of the secretive, lax regulatory systems in which it operates. Evidently this facilitates the setting up of offshore entities in tax havens around the world.
Many politicians, corporates, promoters and celebrities have been named, including Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
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According to the exposé, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was director/shareholder of a firm in the British Virgin Islands. Aishwarya, her father Kotedadi Ramana Rai, mother Vrinda Krishna Rai and brother Aditya Rai were registered in 2005 as directors of Amic Partners Ltd. Aishwarya’s status was changed to shareholder before the company was dissolved in 2008.
Amitabh Bachchan, the report states, was director with four shipping companies in the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas. Bachchan, it is added, was appointed director in at least four shipping companies, one in the British Virgin Islands and three in the Bahamas, set up in 1993.
The authorised capital of these companies ranged between $5,000 and $50,000, but they traded in ships worth millions.
Ouch! Does this spell big trouble ahead for the Bachchans?
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