Lalit Khaitan and his family, the owners of Radico Khaitan, a prominent manufacturer of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), have held assets in offshore trusts, as revealed by the Pandora Papers.
Documents from the Trident Trust in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) show that the Timberlane Trust was established in 2012 between the Timberlane Group Foundation, based in Panama, and the Trident Trust, BVI. Lalit Khaitan and his son Abhishek Khaitan are named as the “beneficiaries” of the trust. Lalit Khaitan is the Chairman and Managing Director of Radico Khaitan Limited, and his son Abhishek serves as the Managing Director of the company.
The Timberlane Trust deed identifies “50,000 shares of USD 1 in Beecool Global Holdings Limited” as part of the trust fund. The Timberlane Group Foundation was set up in Panama on October 3, 2012, and Beecool Global Holdings Limited was incorporated in the BVI on April 26, 2012.
According to the Register of Directors of Beecool Global Holdings, the Timberlane Trust has held 50,000 ordinary shares of Beecool Global Holdings Limited since September 4, 2012. These shares were transferred to Lalit and Abhishek Khaitan in 2013, with share transfer forms dated October 30, 2013, indicating that the trust transferred 25,000 shares each to Lalit and Abhishek for “valuable considerations received.”
Additional documents indicate that Ultimate S.A., a company formed under the laws of the Island of Nevis, acted as the Fiduciary Founder of the Timberlane Group Foundation. A 2012 letter from the Timberlane Foundation to Trident Trust highlights the involvement of the law firm OP Khaitan & Co., with correspondence related to the trust being forwarded to Gautam Khaitan, the owner of the firm.
Furthermore, documents show that Ashutosh Patra, a senior partner at OP Khaitan & Co., was appointed as an independent director of Radico Khaitan from September 30, 2014, for a five-year term.
