Finally, the name of Indian account holders in Swiss bank notorious for stashing black money has been revealed in an expose conducted by Indian Express. The daily released a list called Swiss Leaks containing names of Indians who are account holders with HSBC Swiss that includes the names of big corporate chieftains including brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani.
The 'Swiss Leaks' are being called a trove of documents obtained by the French 'Le Monde' newspaper from French government sources after the documents were submitted to the French government by a whistleblower in 2008. The documents list the details of around one lakh account holders in the Swiss branch of HSBC for the period 2006-7. Not everyone in this list is a 'black' account holder though. Within this list are also thousands of legitimate accounts, held by businessmen and celebrities, who had nothing to do with any illegality, have paid their taxes and have hidden nothing.
Among Bollywood, two names have been mentioned in the list namely producer Smita Thackeray and actress Mahima Chaudhary.
As per Indian Express, Smita Thackeray has a balance of $103.236 (Rs 64 lakh) in her HSBC Swiss account. The account is said to have been opened in 2002. Smita's date of birth, passport number are listed and her profession is described as President of IMPPA (Indian Motion Pictures’ Producers Association).
A curious inclusion in the list is Mahima Chaudhary. In the records of the bank, Mahima known as Ritu is described as a top model and actress. Balance details of her account were not available.
Both Smita and Mahima remained unavailable for comment. Our text to Mahima went unanswered.
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