Kathmandu (The Kathmandu Post) - Over 50 Nepalis have invested in offshore companies, exploiting secretive tax regimes and breaking Nepal’s law which bars investment in foreign countries, an investigation by the Centre for Investigative Journalism has found.
The report ‘Nepal Leaks 2019: Illegal Wealth Watch,’ based on an analysis of over 3,000 financial and court documents and interviews with over 70 individuals, was published Wednesday night.
Those involved in offshore investment include politicians to high-flying businessman—some of whom are non-resident Nepalis—to doctors and hoteliers, as well as at least half a dozen individuals whose names were previously unheard of in the public sphere.
Former lawmaker Birendra Mahato and his brother Upendra Mahato, Nepali Congress member Rajendra Bajgain, controversial businessman Ajeya Raj Sumargi, Mercantile CEO Sanjib Raj Bhandari, Chaudhary Group MD Arun Kumar Chaudhary, Hotel Malla Chair Rama Malla are among those named in the report.
Birendra Mahato, currently a central member of the Federal Socialist Forum party, invested in the Belarus-based OJSC Amkodor Holding Limited Company, the CIJ report found. Other investors in the company include his brother Upendra Mahato, the former chairman of the Non-Resident Nepali Association; another NRN Niraj Govinda Shrestha; and Lebanese national Romeo Abdo who was previously associated with TeliaSonera, the Swedish telecommunications company, which sold its stake in Ncell to Asian company Axiata amidst uproars over its tax evasion tactics.
Sumargi, who has made headlines in recent weeks following his withdrawal of nearly US$7 million from Nepal Investment Bank after an apex court order quashed an earlier order allowing him access to his assets, invested in the Cyprus-based Airbell Service Limited Company. His employee Arjun Sharma was named as a co-investor in the company. The company, the report found, is still actively operating.
The Center for Investigative Journalism said most of the documents were provided by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the organization responsible for publishing The Panama Papers, a 2016 investigation which exposed how the world’s rich and famous hide their wealth offshore. The investigation revealed offshore links of 140 politicians and public officials including former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Iceland Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaughsson and the current king of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud.
