QUOTE
Racing mogul in £2.5bn Indian tax inquiry
Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi
Friday March 9, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
A reclusive racehorse breeder based in a small southern Indian city has emerged at the centre of 200bn rupee (£2.5bn) tax evasion investigation, which officials claim is the largest in the country's history.
Tax investigators raided the Pune ranch of Hassan Ali last month, recovering a laptop and other bank documents.
Television reports say "incriminating evidence" points to a half a dozen Swiss bank accounts containing billions of dollars. If this money were Mr Ali's, it would catapult the little-known "face from the races" into the front rank of India's richest men.
Thanks to a booming economy, India has 36 billionaires; more than any other Asian country - but Mr Ali's name has never been mentioned as a member of the super rich. Officials have been cracking down on tax evasion schemes, focusing on those set up by wealthy Indians with undeclared assets.
Mr Ali is believed to come from a quietly successful business family in southern India. He owns a stud farm, apartments in Mumbai and homes in a string of south Indian cities. Before today's publicity he was best known for turning up to race days in a Mercedes to watch his "pure-breeds".
His name has now cropped up in an inquiry looking at allegations that billions of rupees were salted away in Alpine bank accounts. Newspapers say that the monies in Switzerland are part of an elaborate "hawala" operation, where money is routed around the world outside the normal banking system, through a network of underground Muslim brokers across the globe.
It is suggested that the Swiss bank accounts contain untaxed profits from share deals on the country's stock exchange. The money was sent via countries such as Mauritius, which thanks to a bilateral tax treaty with New Delhi do not attract Indian taxes. Delhi has asked for the Swiss accounts to be frozen.
The government today confirmed the raids on a "Hassan Ali Khan". A press release issued by the finance ministry says that "certain foreign accounts were found during the search".
Mr Ali's lawyer said the allegations were "baseless". "It is true that the [income tax] department had raided his house a month back but all this talk of freezing his accounts is baseless. We got to know of this matter only from media," Viraj Kakde told New Delhi TV.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2030341,00.html
Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi
Friday March 9, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
A reclusive racehorse breeder based in a small southern Indian city has emerged at the centre of 200bn rupee (£2.5bn) tax evasion investigation, which officials claim is the largest in the country's history.
Tax investigators raided the Pune ranch of Hassan Ali last month, recovering a laptop and other bank documents.
Television reports say "incriminating evidence" points to a half a dozen Swiss bank accounts containing billions of dollars. If this money were Mr Ali's, it would catapult the little-known "face from the races" into the front rank of India's richest men.
Thanks to a booming economy, India has 36 billionaires; more than any other Asian country - but Mr Ali's name has never been mentioned as a member of the super rich. Officials have been cracking down on tax evasion schemes, focusing on those set up by wealthy Indians with undeclared assets.
Mr Ali is believed to come from a quietly successful business family in southern India. He owns a stud farm, apartments in Mumbai and homes in a string of south Indian cities. Before today's publicity he was best known for turning up to race days in a Mercedes to watch his "pure-breeds".
His name has now cropped up in an inquiry looking at allegations that billions of rupees were salted away in Alpine bank accounts. Newspapers say that the monies in Switzerland are part of an elaborate "hawala" operation, where money is routed around the world outside the normal banking system, through a network of underground Muslim brokers across the globe.
It is suggested that the Swiss bank accounts contain untaxed profits from share deals on the country's stock exchange. The money was sent via countries such as Mauritius, which thanks to a bilateral tax treaty with New Delhi do not attract Indian taxes. Delhi has asked for the Swiss accounts to be frozen.
The government today confirmed the raids on a "Hassan Ali Khan". A press release issued by the finance ministry says that "certain foreign accounts were found during the search".
Mr Ali's lawyer said the allegations were "baseless". "It is true that the [income tax] department had raided his house a month back but all this talk of freezing his accounts is baseless. We got to know of this matter only from media," Viraj Kakde told New Delhi TV.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2030341,00.html