Captain Satish Sharma, a Congress leader, friend of the Gandhi family and a former Union minister, who passed away in February this year, had foreign entities and assets abroad. Pandora Letter Display.
At least 10 members of Sharma’s family, including his wife Stere, children and grandchildren, are among the beneficiaries of a trust, the Jan Jaggers Trust – a declaration Sharma never made while filing election nomination papers to the Election Commission. .
According to AsiaCity Trust documents, the Jan Zegers Trust was incorporated in the Cayman Islands in 1995 – Sharma was then Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas – and later under New Zealand’s governing law.
Another trust, named JZ II Trust, was incorporated in New Zealand in October 2015, when Sharma was a Rajya Sabha member.
He was the keeper of two trusts and his wife Stere was a beneficiary. Documents show that he was managing his properties in France and Singapore and transferring multiple payments to Stere through third-party bank accounts.
Trust in income tax return, I have no role in my family and companies: Wife Stere
Most of the remittance orders were classified as high risk with a note: “Reason for classification as high risk remittance: Stere Sharma is married to Satish Sharma, an Indian politician.”
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An August 2014 document lists the beneficiaries of the Jan Zegers Trust. These include Satish Sharma (defender), Henriette Janet Zegers Ten Horn, Stare Candida Maria Sharma Zegers, Mei Celesta Regina Zegers, Angelian Felicia Gabriele Zegers, Sameer Sharma, Sarika Sharma, Patrick Breney, Paul McGowan and The Kalakar Trust.
The Delhi address of the Kalakar Trust in the Pandora Papers belongs to the property owned by Stere, according to Sharma’s affidavit filed with his Rajya Sabha nomination in 2010.
In his declaration when filing nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections in 2004 and 2010, the only immovable property he declared outside India was Stere’s “legacy house” in Amsterdam.
A document from AsiaCity Trust details the Sharma offshore network and lists the entities: The Jane Jaggers Trust and its underlying companies, Dancer SARL (Luxembourg), Enenes Ltd (UK), and Lomond Investments Ltd (Cayman Islands) – Lomond was later dissolved. and replaced by Univest Capital Limited (Samoa); JZ II Trust and its underlying companies, Univest Capital Limited (Samoa) and Fortune Skyline Limited (British Virgin Islands).
Documents show that between July 2013 and September 2015, Satish Sharma “agreed” to pay EUR 0.9799 million, USD 0.1885 million and 2 million Singapore dollars to various entities through certain third party accounts.
Out of this, about Rs 4.28 crore (Euro 4 lakh and USD 1 lakh) was to be remitted through Ratan Chadha in multiple phases to his account in Jammu and Kashmir Bank in Vasant Vihar of Delhi branch.
Chadha, also named in Panama Papers, lives in Amsterdam. Documents show that when the Jan Zegers Trust was formed in 1995, he signed the required documents as “witnesses”. Chadha did not respond to an email seeking his comment.
answer questions from Indian Express, Stere Sharma, in a written reply (full response online) said: “Jan Zegers Trust was incorporated in 1995 by my late father as the settlor, as a mechanism to manage his assets and pass on his inheritance to the beneficiaries. In order to pass the issue including his wife, the settler (my father) and his wife, the issue of husbands, wives, widows and widowers and his wife and the issue of the Kalakar Trust of New Delhi India and the remote issue which has made commendable charitable and Charitable work done in India.
The Jan Zegers II Trust was incorporated to help eliminate the trust’s assets in order to pay French taxes on the trust property, which tax demands far exceeded the value of the trust property. Late Shri Satish Sharma was made the custodian of the Trust, who could act in place of the Settlor (my late father) if the Settlor is not alive (died) or was subject to disability or incapacity to provide continuity. For all purposes my late father’s heir was the beneficiary and all powers and control were vested in my late father….
I have declared trust in my IT return from the financial year 2016-2017. Family settlement was going on. The assets were liquidated in order to pay French taxes in excess of the value of the property. Final tax claims have been settled this year only in the recent past months. Once the family settlement is in place, any taxes due in each jurisdiction will be duly paid. The trustees were mandated to strictly comply with all regulatory compliances.
The companies are formed solely to manage the assets under the trust, which is my late father’s legacy and is duly terminated with the trust. I have no role in these companies by any of my family members or I understand.
Being out of India I don’t have access to anything here and I am not able to answer any such specifics which I am not aware of….
As already mentioned there are currently no assets, and the property required liquidation in order to pay taxes in France, which taxes exceeded the value of the property, the taxes were recently settled and the balance is to be distributed after settlement of a family, and taxes on disbursements shall be paid as due in each jurisdiction in accordance with the laws in force therein. We started this legal process long back. The meeting was organized to fulfill the mandate given by my late father to protect his legacy.
I am told that the PEP is not a classification created by AsiaCity, but an internationally published list and publicly searchable database, which includes many Indian politicians and bureaucrats, both past and present. This requires a high level of compliance and is a good thing to prevent public office malfeasance. My late husband ceased to be a minister in 1996 and an MP in 2016.
I have declared according to law when it was required. Since the trust was inherited from my father, when it was actually passed on to me by way of distribution of my share, I would duly display that amount in my income tax return and deduct tax as an Indian resident. Although I am a Dutch citizen. .
Late Mr. Satish Sharma did not have any offshore assets….
… I have done human service and philanthropy through my hard earned money for the upliftment of poor children and artisans, which will neither be your system nor will accept, where through your vast prism of male privilege, I To be treated as an appendage and to inherit the favor of my family north for my late husband, who have no relation with India, except to pass on certain benefits for charitable activities in India.
… In any case, as mentioned in your mail, the purpose of ICIJ is primarily to investigate the use of offshore finance, due diligence and compliance and use of offshore trusts for money laundering, etc., while we acknowledge that These structures have legitimate purposes as well. , these do not apply in our case.”
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