Singer Shakira, cricketer Tendulkar and over a dozen heads of state named in Pandora Papers

Gulf Today Report

Colombian singer Shakira, the German supermodel Claudia Schiffer and the Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar are among the affluent individual people who have been named in the Pandora Papers investigation.

More than a dozen heads of state and government, from Azerbaijan to Kenya and the Czech Republic, have used offshore tax havens to hide assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a far-reaching new investigation by the ICIJ media consortium.

The so-called "Pandora Papers" investigation — involving some 600 journalists from media including The Washington Post, the BBC and The Guardian — is based on the leak of some 11.9 million documents from 14 financial services companies around the world.

Shakira's lawyer said her offshore accounts were declared and that they did not provide any tax advantages. Tendulkar's attorney said the cricket player's investment is legitimate and has been declared to tax authorities.

Schiffer's representatives said the supermodel correctly pays her taxes in the UK, where she lives.

The Colombian-born pop music sensation is already well known for her tax troubles. Though she declared herself a resident of the Bahamas, authorities in Spain determined she was actually living in Barcelona from 2011 to 2014 but not paying taxes, and in July a Spanish magistrate cleared the way for her to go to trial on criminal charges laid in 2019.

The Pandora Papers reveal that even as that investigation in Spain was underway, she was incorporating new offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands, one of which, Titania Management Inc., has never previously been publicly revealed.

Tendulkar has been named in the Pandora Papers investigation that unmasks the covert owners of offshore companies, incognito bank accounts, private jets, yachts, mansions, and even artworks by Pablo Picasso, Banksy and other masters, by providing more information than what is usually available to law enforcement agencies and cash-strapped governments.

The Pandora Papers show that Tendulkar, his wife Anjali Tendulkar and father-in-law Anand Mehta were the beneficial owners of an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands.

The company, Saas International Limited, was liquidated in 2016 following the Panama Papers expose, the report said. It remained operational from 2012 to 2016 when Tendulkar was a member of the Indian parliament.

Saas International Limited was liquidated three months after the Panama Papers investigation was made public.

According to The Indian Express, "the average buyback price of shares of Saas International Limited is around $96,000. And as a resolution of the company dated August 10, 2007 (the day the company was formed) shows, 90 shares of the company were issued at the outset. This is not the first time that he has been named in such a paper. He was named in the Panama papers as well.

Some 35 current and former leaders are featured in the latest vast trove of documents analysed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) — facing allegations ranging from corruption to money laundering and global tax avoidance.

In most countries, the ICIJ stresses, it is not illegal to have assets offshore or to use shell companies to do business across national borders.

The Pandora Papers also named a veteran Congress leader, former minister and friend of the Gandhi family, Satish Sharma.

At least 10 of Sharma's family members, including his wife, children and grandchildren are among the beneficiaries of the Jan Zegers Trust — a declaration the late politician never made to the country's election commission when he was filing his nomination papers, The Indian Express reported.