The News Minute| February 9, 2015| 2.30 pm IST
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal was right. The Ambanis (Anil and Mukesh) have accounts in HSBC in Geneva, Switzerland as has been revealed by #SwissLeaks today. However, two questions remain.
In November 2012, Kejriwal had announced in a press meet that the Indian government had received a list of 700 Indians who had Swiss accounts, but had not acted against most.
Amongst many names he revealed were the names of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Reliance ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani, Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal and Congress MP Annu Tandon.
Kejriwal was off the mark when it came to the amount, he had alleged that the Ambani brothers had stashed away Rs 100 crores in Swiss bank accounts. Indian Express report says Mukesh Ambani opened two HSBC accounts in 2001 with an average joint balance of $26.6 million in 2006/2007. There is also an account of Reliance Industries Limited, which was opened in 2007, with a balance of $ 103.8 million (Rs 638.6 crore).
The questions that have become crucial
Are these accounts legitimate ? Was black money being stashed away or was this money for which taxes have already been paid or was this legitimate business?
The current exposé is based on the bank balance in 2008. What happened before and after ? Was more money deposited, withdrawn ?
It may be recalled that in 2008, Hervé Falciani working in the informatics department of the HSBC in Geneva had walked out with a list of 8993 people many of whom were trying to escape the French tax authorities. The News Minute (TNM) has been able to confirm that there are 1,195 Indians in the Falciani list.
Following Kejriwal’s press meet in 2012, these were the reactions that followed:
Reliance Industries- . It clearly stated that neither Mukesh Ambani nor RIL have been the owner of any beneficiary account with the private division of the bank in Switzerland. The Swiss Unit of HSBC Plc. had previously apologized to RIL for erroneously including its name in the list of beneficiary account holders. The bank attributed administrative errors as a reason for the same and regretted for the inconvenience caused. Reliance Industries Limited is India‘s largest private sector company, having a turnover of thousands of crores of rupees and deals with several countries. Bearing in mind the size, scale, and significance of their business, it is a requisite for the international subsidiaries of the company to deal with several international banks including HSBC, for their daily activities. However, it confirms that all the accounts that the company deals, accords with all regulations and have been divulged in the corresponding jurisdictions in India.
Anil Ambani’s spokesperon also said he never held any account in HSBC Bank, Geneva.
Congress MP Annu Tandon, whose husband the late Sandeep Tandon was a senior official at Reliance Industries, called the allegations "baseless and malicious".
Annu Tandon has now been reported in the media as saying she does not know if her husband has any accounts in foreign banks.
Most had out rightly denied the existence of accounts in 2012, but with the fresh expose by ICIJ, new reactions from those in the list are much awaited.