BMA order against Anil Ambani for offshore assets worth Rs 800 crore
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New Delhi: Anil Ambani, Chairman of Reliance (ADA)Group, came under the radar of the Income Tax department after he was allegedly found to have stashed away undeclared wealth in some offshore locations.
In March 2022, the Mumbai unit of the Income Tax Investigation Wing passed a final order under the 2015 Black Money Act (BMA) against Anil Ambani, according to The Indian Express.
The Black Money Act order was first filed in 2019 after the industrialist was given notices over several of his undeclared offshore assets.
The order lists offshore entities and details of transactions in linked bank accounts adding up to over Rs 800 crore( valued on the basis of current rupee-dollar exchange rate) the report said.
Subsequently, a questionnaire regarding the wealth sent to Anil Ambani went unanswered.
However, in February 2020, Ambani told a UK court he was "bankrupt" and his net worth was "zero."
The BMA order reportedly gives details on Anil Ambani's Beneficial Ownership of entities in the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands.
In the Bahamas, Anil Ambani floated the Diamond Trust in 2006 with an "underlying" offshore company, Dreamwork Holdings Inc.
Following the CBDT's request to the Bahamas through the Foreign Tax and Tax Research (FTTR) division, the existence of a linked Swiss bank account came to light. It was in the Zurich branch of UBS Bank, according to the report.
The report said that Anil Ambani floated another undeclared offshore company, incorporated in 2010 in the BVI, called North Atlantic Trading Unlimited.
This company was found to have a linked bank account with the Bank of Cyprus. This entity was among 18 entities linked to Anil Ambani in the recently published "Pandora Papers" investigation listed by The Indian Express but, evidently, was one already on the radar of the IT authorities, the report said.
Also, the report further said that "substantial" transactions were found happening in these foreign bank accounts with no charges on the offshore assets.
In 2015, the "Swiss Leaks" found Anil Ambani among 1,1000 Indians as holding an account in HSBC's Geneva Branch, with Anil Ambani having a balance of $ 26.6 million for the year 2006-07, according to The Indian Express.