Vijay Mallya appears on UK electoral roll: UK Media

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: In the latest, UK media has claimed that Vijay Mallya is on the UK electoral roll, as his country home in Britain has been listed as his official address.

As per a report by ‘The Sunday Times’, Mallya had confirmed saying “my official address in the UK is at Ladywalk and the ownership structure of Ladywalk is perfectly legal,”, further adding that he had given this information to the concerned authorities in India.

The use of companies with offshore links to buy properties in Britain has come under increasing scrutiny as the practice can allow the real owner or beneficiary to remain hidden — sometimes for tax purposes.

Such companies collectively hold up to 170 billion pounds of UK property, much of it in London and the home counties.
British Prime Minister David Cameron is set to use an anti-corruption summit next month to demand more transparency on such future purchases.

Mallya, however, told the newspaper there was no "concealment or tax avoidance involved" and said that he has been a "British resident" since 1992.

The report notes that official documents list the owner of Ladywalk as a limited liability partnership called Ladywalk LLP. It has two members, including a company called Continental Administration Services, which is registered in St. Kitts and Nevis, a Commonwealth country in the Caribbean regarded as a tax haven.

A loan to finance the property purchase in July 2015 was made by the Edmond de Rothschild private bank in Switzerland.
Official papers name the borrower as Ladywalk Investments, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, another tax haven.

Mallya had left India on March 2. He has refused to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on three occasions when summoned between March 10 and April 2.

ED has said it will also seek an Interpol arrest warrant against Mallya based on a non-bailable warrant issued last week by a Mumbai court in a money laundering case.

With PTI inputs