In the new update of Panama Papers(Paradise Papers), the names of Jayant Sinha (Minister of State for Civil Aviation) and Ravindra Kishore (RK) Sinha have appeared. The details of the dealings are as follows:
Jayant Sinha
Jayant Sinha has been India’s Minister of State for Civil Aviation since 2016, following a two-year stint as the country’s Minister of State for Finance. Before entering politics in 2014, Sinha was a management consultant and an investment fund manager. He also worked as the Managing Director in India for Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, an American billionaire who is also a donor to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
In the Data
In 2010, acting as an Omidyar Network representative, Sinha was appointed to the board of directors of D.Light Design, a Californian solar power company that received $5.5 million from the philanthropic investment firm and other investors.
In a company document dated December 2012, Sinha appears as one of the signatories of a board resolution approving a $3 million loan from a Dutch fund to D.Light’s Cayman subsidiary.
In his 2016 declaration to the Indian Prime Minister’s Office, it is noted that he “may be entitled to carried interest in certain investments made by Omidyar Network entities in the years 2009 to 2013,” and that the value of the carried interest he may receive “is not capable of determination.” Sinha doesn’t currently have any business interests, according to the declaration.
Response
Sinha said that he was on the board of D.Light Design until 2014 and signed financial documents as part of his duty. During his last year on the board he was an independent director and received consulting fees and D.Light shares that he has disclosed, he said.
The “investments made by the Omidyar Network entities” that are mentioned in his 2016 declaration have not provided him monetary benefits in the last three years since he entered politics, Sinha told ICIJ’s media partner The Indian Express.
Additional data on this can be referenced from this link.
Ravindra Kishore (RK) Sinha
Ravindra Kishore Sinha, a former journalist also known as RK Sinha, is a member of the Indian Parliament’s upper house and the chairman of Hindustan Samachar, a news agency backed by an organization behind the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Sinha, who is considered one of India’s richest politicians, is also the founder of Security and Intelligence Services, SIS, a private security company with operations in India and Australia.
In the Data
Sinha is a minority shareholder and director of SIS Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd., a subsidiary of Security and Intelligence Services, registered in Malta in 2008. His wife, Rita Kishore Sinha, is also listed as a director. According to the prospectus of the Indian parent company, which is the country’s second-largest security provider, Sinha’s single share in the Malta subsidiary is owned by a holding company in the British Virgin Islands.
An affidavit he submitted to the Election Commission of India when he was nominated in 2014 does not mention his interest in the Malta company.
However, Sinha was listed as a shareholder and chairman of its parent company in a document submitted to the Securities and Exchange Board of India a few days before the parent company’s initial public offering at the end of July 2017. According to the filings, the company and its subsidiaries had 18 outstanding criminal proceedings and 27 open “taxation matters.” The Malta subsidiary is not mentioned in the proceedings. Sinha was named as one of the respondents in three criminal cases over alleged violations of labor laws, according to the filing, and in tax litigation involving one of the subsidiaries. After the recent IPO, his son, Rituraj, became SIS’s group managing director.
Response
Sinha said that he has “no direct interest” in SIS Asia Pacific Holdings and that he holds one share in the entity “on behalf” of SIS, “and not in my personal capacity.” For this reason, his 2014 declaration mentions only his interest in the parent group, Sinha told ICIJ and its partner The Indian Express.
Sinha added that he is a party to the criminal proceedings in his capacity of director, “and not because I have personally violated any law.” The civil proceeding in which he is a party relates to a dispute pertaining to “certain properties” and the matter is currently under judgment, he said.
Whether these revelations will cause any turbulence in the current Cabinet, only time will tell.
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