Offshore Firm Under Probe in Panama Papers and Aircel Maxis Case
Unison Global Investment, based in British Virgin Islands, is linked to Sameer Gehlaut and Karti Chidambaram.
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Investments by a mystery company in tax haven British Virgin Islands (BVI) are being investigated in two major cases – the Aircel-Maxis case and the Panama Papers probe.
In 2013-2014, Unison Global Investment Limited, the BVI company, invested 1.08 million pounds in two companies, owned or controlled by Indiabulls promoter Sameer Gehlaut. It also invested 2.4 million pounds in a Singapore company which is a subsidiary of Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited, where Karti Chidambaram also held a stake.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) sent a Letter Rogatory to Singapore for details on Advantage Strategic Consulting Singapore Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Advantage (India), in connection with the Aircel-Maxis case.
A multi-agency committee constituted on the Prime Minister’s instructions is probing all of those named in the papers. This committee includes Income Tax, RBI, ED and the Financial Intelligence Unit.
Queries have been sent out to all those named and the RBI has asked all of them to furnish details of remittances made abroad under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).
Set up in 2012, Unison Global Investment Limited, is a company listed by ED whose links with Advantage (Singapore) are being investigated.
In 2014, according to Singapore registry records obtained by The Indian Express, Unison (BVI) was given 49,00,000 preference shares by Advantage (Singapore) for about 2.4 million pounds.
Records list Unison (BVI) with a Singapore address (08-21 Peninsula Plaza) but identify the company as “Foreign Entity not registered with ACRA (Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority)”.
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