ED seizes Rs 30.60 crore investments in case against businessmen brothers in Pandora Papers leak

Investments in securities worth Rs 30.60 crore have been seized in connection with an alleged foreign exchange violation case against Vikram Swarup and Gaurav Swarup whose name figured in global financial data leaks called Pandora Papers, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said.

Pandora leaks stated the Indian businessmen brothers were beneficial owners in a company, Epsilon Enterprises Ltd, incorporated in British Virgin Islands, the agency said in a statement.

The Pandora Papers global leaks surfaced in 2021 after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) came out with 2.94 terabyte of data trove that exposed the offshore secrets of wealthy elites from more than 200 countries and territories including India.

Vikram Swarup and Gaurav Swarup were the beneficiaries in bank accounts of Epsilon Enterprises Ltd. maintained with Standard Chartered Bank, Jersey and the Bank J. Safra Sarasin, Switzerland. Investigation found that the Swarup brothers were holding assets in the form of foreign exchange in these accounts in contravention of Section 4 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, the ED said.