Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff and his children Tiger Shroff and Krishna Shroff have been named in the Pandora Papers investigation that unmasks the covert owners of offshore companies. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) said people linked by the secret documents to offshore assets also include Sachin Tendulkar, pop music diva Shakira, supermodel Claudia Schiffer. It is been reported that Jackie Shroff has reportedly been named as the ‘prime beneficiary’ of a trust that was set up by his wife, Ayesha Shroff’s mother, Claudia Dutt in New Zealand. As reported in Indian Express, Jackie’s mother-in-law formed the Media Trust, registered with London Fiduciary Trust Company Limited (LFTC) in New Zealand on November 29, 2005. Eight years later, the trust was reportedly terminated. The records in the Pandora Papers investigated that Jackie Shroff made “substantial contributions” to the trust, which had a Swiss bank account.
The records, however, do not mention the amount Shroff contributed, but they do show that it held a bank account at a private Swiss bank. The account was, however, closed in 2013. When Ayesha was reportedly quizzed about the same, she denied having any knowledge of the same. She also mentioned that her mother, who passed away a decade ago, was a Belgian citizen and not a resident of India. Pandora papers have hit headlines everywhere in the world and have sent shockwaves through the global elite as their investments worth millions, most of them suspicious and made with tax avoidance in mind, have been leaked. Several top public personalities from across the world have been named in the list which gives details of their secret wealth reserves. In 2019, an unknown source began submitting massive amounts of documents to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.The files showed a global cast of fugitives, criminals, celebrities, football players, and others, as well as secret assets, clandestine agreements, and hidden riches of the super-rich, including judges, tax authorities, intelligence chiefs, and mayors.