All the three brothers of the Salgaocar clan, Dattaraj Salgaocar, the late Anil Salgaocar and Shivanand Salgaocar, set up offshore trusts and companies, reveal The Pandora Papers documents investigated by The Indian Express.
According to the documents maintained by Asiaciti Trust Services, Dattaraj Salgaocar, owner of VM Salgaocar Group, is shown as the beneficiary of The Annemecore Trust in New Zealand. As per the trust deed, Annemecore was set up on July 4, 2011, with Mirabaud Trust (New Zealand) Ltd as its trustee.
On July 26, 2011, the Mirabaud passed a resolution stating that the settlor of the trust had transferred “her entire interest in a Panamanian company, Castelnor Services Inc. to the trust”. The resolution did not name the settlor of the trust.
On September 23, 2011, the trustee passed another resolution to dissolve Castelnor Services, the wholly owned company of the trust, and distribute the money lying in a Swiss bank account of Castelnor to Dattaraj Salgaocar.
A notice by the trustee of Annemecore Trust to the Inland Revenue Department of New Zealand reveals that after the distribution of the money to Salgaocar, the trust was dissolved in January 2012.
🗞️ Read the best investigative journalism in India. Subscribe to The Indian Express e-Paper here.
According to the Pandora Papers, Shivanand Salgaocar, too, has set up three companies: Kayler International Limited in the BVI; Indochina Alliance Limited in Samoa and Citigrand International Ltd in Hong Kong through Asiaciti Trust Services.
While Indochina Alliance was set up in 2005 with Shivanand Salgaocar as its beneficial owner, Kayler International and Citgrand International were both set up in 2004. The beneficial owner of Kayler is Shivanand and his wife Ranjana, while the owner of Citigrand is Shivanand’s daughter Swati Salgaocar.
The director of all the three companies is Samoa-based Westco Directors Limited. All the companies have linked foreign bank accounts. For instance, both Kayler International and Citigrand International sought to open bank accounts with the Bank of East Asia Ltd in Hong Kong, while Indochina Alliance opened an account with Deutsche Bank, Singapore.
Kayler International, records show, was set up to hold investments, while the business of Citigrand International is to undertake “trade activities involving export of materials from India, China and receive trade commissions.”
Shivanand Salgaocar, the chairman and managing director of Vimson Group that has interests in mining and real estate, has been earlier named in the “Offshore Leaks” structured data released by ICIJ in 2013 . In that, Salgaocar was linked to a Hong Kong-based firm Jade Sky International Ltd.
Most Read 1Chandrayaan-3 mission: Dawn breaks on Moon, all eyes on lander, rover to wake up 2As Indo-Canadian relations sour, anxiety grips Indian students, residents who wish to settle in Canada 3Karan Johar says Sanjay Leela Bhansali did not call him after Rocky Aur Rani: ‘He’s never called me but…’ 4Gadar 2 box office collection day 40: Hit by Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan onslaught, Sunny Deol movie ends BO run with Rs 45 lakh earning 5Shubh’s tour in India cancelled: Why is the Canada-based singer facing the music?
Apart from Shivanand, six firms set up by his brother, the late Anil Salgaocar, show up in the Pandora Papers. These BVI firms are: Crown Bright Trading Ltd; General Harvest International Ltd; Ling Tao Trading Limited; Nickon Enterprises Limited; Sing Ling Tao Resources Limited; and Horizon Villa Investments Limited that were incorporated with the help of Mossack Fonseca (MF) as earlier reported by The Indian Express (in 2016 Panama papers) are now being managed by Panama-based corporate services provider, OMC Group.
The Pandora Papers show that as early as 2005, Anil Salgaocar resigned from the six firms and transferred his stake to his former business partner Darsan Jitendra Jhaveri. In 2015, Salgaocar initiated legal proceedings against Jhaveri in Singapore claiming that Jhaveri held extensive assets on trust for him and had failed to account for them. Anil Salgaocar passed away in 2016 but his wife Lakshmi Salgaocar, who is the administrator of Salgaocar’s estate, is now fighting the legal battle with Jhaveri.
Also ReadIE100: The list of most powerful Indians in 2021FinCEN Files — On US radar: Dawood Ibrahim’s financier, his laundering, f…Drug menace bigger threat than militancy, we’re going Punjab way: J&K DGP…After ‘downgrade’ last year, MEA sent Speaker’s office talk points on dem…
Emails to Dattaraj Salgaocar and Shivanand Salgaocar did not elicit any response. The office of Dattaraj Salgaocar said he is out of the country till the end of October. Email and calls to the official spokesperson of Vimson Group remained unanswered. Phone calls and text messages to Sameer Salgaocar , son of late Anil Salgaocar did not elicit any response.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd