Minister Jayanth Sinha Clarifies about Paradise Papers

New Delhi Nov 6: The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has once brought out paradise papers -the documents to shun the light on offshore entities.

The Papers also list some of the famous Indian politicians.The documents reveal that Union Cabinet Minister Jayanth Sinha has worked as a director for 'Omidyar Network' as its Managing Director in India before he joined the cabinet.

Omidyar Network invested in a US company D.Light Design which has a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean Sea. Sinha joined Omidyar Network in September 2009 and resigned in December 2013.

The company invested in D.Light Design which took a loan of $ 3 million through its Cayman Islands subsidiary from an investor based in the Netherlands and Jayant Sinha was the director when the company took these decisions.

Minister Jayant Sinhas Reply



The minister has given his response and in a series of tweets, he said that "Full details have been provided to Indian Express. These were bonafide and legal transactions undertaken on behalf of highly reputed ".

He added that "world-leading organisations in my fiduciary role as Partner at Omidyar Network and its designated representative on the D.Light Board.All these transactions have been fully disclosed to relevant authorities through all necessary filings as required."

Sinha has also said that "After leaving Omidyar Network, I was asked to continue on the D.Light Board as an Independent Director.On joining the Union Council of Ministers, I immediately resigned from the D.Light Board and severed my involvement with the company."

Finally, he said that "It is crucial to note that these transactions were done for D.Light as an Omidyar representative, and not for any personal purpose."

The Paradise Papers is the fourth collaborative investigation into offshore and banking assets done by The Indian Express with the ICIJ.