Black Money Act order against Anil Ambani: offshore assets Rs 800 crore

Alleging detection of undeclared offshore assets and investments, the Mumbai unit of the Income Tax Investigation Wing passed a final order in March 2022 against Anil Ambani, Chairman of the Reliance (ADA) Group, under the 2015 Black Money Act (BMA).

The Black Money Act order was filed following the issuance of notices to the industrialist on a web of alleged undeclared offshore assets, the first in 2019.

The order lists offshore entities and details of transactions in linked bank accounts adding up to over Rs 800 crore. 

This figure, sources said, was calculated on the basis of the current rupee-dollar exchange rate.

The BMA order is understood to detail Anil Ambani's Beneficial Ownership of entities in two offshore havens, the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands.

In the Bahamas, he set up the Diamond Trust in 2006 with an "underlying" offshore company, Dreamwork Holdings Inc. 

Following requests sent by the CBDT to the Bahamas through the Foreign Tax and Tax Research (FTTR) division, the existence of a linked Swiss bank account in the Zurich branch of UBS Bank came to light.