New Delhi, February 13
CBI Director AP Singh today said Indians were the largest depositors in banks abroad with an estimated 500 billion dollars (nearly Rs 24.5 lakh crore) of illegal money stashed by them in tax havens including those in Mauritius, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and British Virgin Islands.

This came to notice while investigating cases like those pertaining to 2G, CWG and Madhu Koda. The prime investigation agency found that from India, money was taken to Dubai, Singapore and Mauritius, from where, it went to Switzerland and then British Virgin Islands and other such tax havens.

For criminals, all it involves is setting of a few shell companies and then making layered transfers from one account to another in a matter of hours as there are no boundaries in banking transactions.

Largest depositors in Swiss banks are also reported to be Indians, the CBI Director said, addressing the first Interpol Global Programme on Anti-Corruption and Asset Recovery.

He said 53 per cent of the countries termed the least corrupt by the Transparency International index, are offshore tax havens where most of the corrupt money goes. The tax havens include New Zealand, ranked the least corrupt country, Singapore, ranked number five and Switzerland, ranked seven.

He said there is lack of political will in the leading tax haven states to part with information required to trace such assets as they are all too aware of the extent to which their own economies are geared to this flow of illegal capital from the poorer countries.

Procuring information about such illegal transactions is a time-consuming process as investigators have to peel each layer by sending judicial requests to the country where such deposits have been made, the CBI Director added.

He further said tracing, freezing, confiscation and repatriation of stolen assets is a legal challenge, a complex process which requires expertise and political will.

He categorically said India has in particular been suffering owing to flow of illegal funds from tax havens. It is estimated that around 500 billion dollars of illegal money belonging to Indians is deposited in tax havens abroad.