Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw says 'Pandora Papers' wrongly implicates husband's offshore trust

The Biocon executive chairperson on Tuesday issued a clarificatory statement to the stock exchanges

Biocon executive chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw on Tuesday issued a clarificatory statement to the stock exchanges after her husband John Shaw’s offshore trust was named in the 'Pandora Papers'.

In her statement, Shaw said, "No Indian residents hold the key to this offshore trust".

She stated that Glentec International was started by her husband in 1999 to acquire shares that Unilever Plc has in Biocon before Biocon could get listed in India, among other reasons.

“John Shaw’s tax returns filed in India report his shareholding and directorship in Glentec," she said, adding that Glentec’s income from India largely comes from tax paid dividends received from Biocon Limited.

Glentec holds 19.76% shares in Biocon as per latest disclosures.

She also spoke about Deanstone Trust which was set up by Glentec to enable philanthropic endowments and real estate planning for John Shaw and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw’s families.

“Both John and I are neither trustees not settlors nor beneficiaries of this trust," she said in her statement.

Shaw on Monday said the 'Pandora Papers' have wrongly implicated her husband's offshore trust, and termed the organisation as "bonafide" and "legitimate".

She said that no Indian resident holds “the key” to the trust as alleged in these stories."

"Media stories reporting on Pandora Papers wrongly implicate my husband's offshore trust, which is a bonafide, legitimate trust and is managed by Independent Trustees. No Indian resident holds “the key” to the trust as alleged in these stories," Mazumdar-Shaw had said in a tweet.

According to The Indian Express, which was a part of the major Pandora Papers investigation, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw’s husband set up a trust with keys to a person who has been banned by the Sebi for insider trading.

Also Read | Pandora Papers: From Sachin Tendulkar to Shakira, financial dealings of the global elite exposed

Millions of leaked documents dubbed as the 'Pandora Papers' by a worldwide journalistic partnership on October 3, claimed to have uncovered financial secrets of current and former world leaders, politicians and public officials in 91 countries and territories, including India.

The 'Pandora Papers' have named 300 Indian individuals, including Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Ambani, Nirav Modi.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which involved the BBC and The Guardian newspaper in the UK and The Indian Express in India among 150 media outlets in its investigation, claims it obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files to find secret financial dealings of many super rich.

The latest revelations are a follow-up to a similar project released in 2016, called the Panama Papers compiled by the same journalistic group.

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