Pandora Papers: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw says husband's offshore trust wrongly implicated

New Delhi, Oct 4 (PTI) Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Monday said media reports on the 'Pandora Papers' leak have wrongly implicated her husband's offshore trust, and termed the organisation as "bonafide" and "legitimate".

The industry veteran noted that both she and her husband are law abiding citizens.

Anil Ambani, Vinod Adani, Jackie Shroff, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Niira Radia, Sachin Tendulkar and Satish Sharma are among the many Indians who figure in the 'Pandora Papers' that have uncovered financial assets of leaders across the world.

"Media stories reporting on Pandora Papers wrongly implicate my husband's offshore trust, which is a bonafide, legitimate trust and is managed by Independent Trustees. No Indian resident holds “the key” to the trust as alleged in these stories," Mazumdar-Shaw, the executive chairperson of biotechnology major Biocon, said in a tweet.

Later, in a regulatory filing, she elaborated on the offshore trusts.  "My husband, John Shaw is a UK national who from his foreign currency earnings set up an investment company, Glentec International in 1999 to acquire the shares that Unilever Plc. held in Biocon (long before it became a publicly listed company) and for various other investments in real estate and public markets," Mazumdar-Shaw stated.

Glentec is a registered entity in Mauritius disclosed to both RBI and SEBI, she added.

"When Biocon went public in 2004, Glentec's shareholding in Biocon was disclosed and this information continues to be in public domain. Glentec holds 19.76 per cent of Biocon Ltd as per latest disclosures to the stock exchanges," she noted.

She further stated Glentec is a bonafide offshore company (99 per cent owned by John Shaw) whose income from India largely consists of tax paid dividends received from Biocon Ltd.

John Shaw's tax returns filed in India report his shareholding and directorship in Glentec, she added.   Besides, Glentec is audited as per statutes and full disclosure of its dividend income from Indian companies is made, Mazumdar-Shaw said.

Commenting on Deanstone Trust, she noted that it was set up by Glentec in 2015 to enable philanthropic endowments and for the purpose of estate planning for both John Shaw and her family members.

"This is a bonafide offshore trust managed by Independent Trustees who are foreign nationals, not resident in India," she said, adding that Glentec is the sole settlor of the Deanstone Trust.

Mazumdar-Shaw further said: "Both John Shaw and I are neither trustees, nor settlors, nor beneficiaries of this trust. Beneficiaries of this trust, who are family members, are foreign nationals and not resident Indians." Philanthropic beneficiaries of the trust are mainly academic institutions and contributions/ endowments made to them are all in the public domain, she stated.

"These are completely baseless accusations. Both John Shaw and I are law abiding citizens and have always been in compliance with all the applicable regulations," Mazumdar-Shaw added.

Millions of leaked documents dubbed as the 'Pandora Papers' by a worldwide journalistic partnership on October 3, claimed to have uncovered financial secrets of current and former world leaders, politicians and public officials in 91 countries and territories, including India.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which involved the BBC and 'The Guardian' newspaper in the UK and 'The Indian Express' in India among 150 media outlets in its investigation, claims it obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files to find secret financial dealings of many super rich.

The 'Pandora Papers' are a follow-up to a similar project released in 2016, called the 'Panama Papers' compiled by the same journalistic group. PTI MSS ABM ABM