MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate on Monday has summoned Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in connection with the Panama Papers leak case. The Bachchan family has been issued notices to explain their involvement in foreign remittances since 2004 under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).
The probe agency recorded the 48-year-old actor's statement in Delhi on allegations of stashing wealth abroad, the sources said. “Aishwarya Rai has already submitted records on foreign payments she has received in the past 15 years”, sources said.
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According to Enforcement Directorate sources, an offshore company, Amic Partners, was incorporated in the British Virgin Island in 2004 with Aishwarya Rai as director. Law firm Mossack Fonseca registered the company, which had a paid-up capital of $50,000.
The ED has been looking into the case since 2016 and has registered a money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in this matter.
A few companies established in 1993 had Amitabh Bachchan as the director of 4 companies - 3 in the Bahamas and 1 in the Virgin Islands. These companies had a huge capital between USD 5,000 to 50,000. All these companies had Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as their director initially but later was declared a shareholder. Aishwarya's parents were also declared partners in the company. The company was created in 2006 and dissolved in 2008.
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Apart from Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, her husband and actor Abhishek Bachchan too has been examined by the ED in the past in another instance linked to the offshore leaks case, sources added.
Panama Papers is an investigation of records from the Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists where they had named several world leaders and celebrities who had allegedly stocked their wealth in offshore companies and have international accounts.
Credit: DNA
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