Nirupama Rajapaksa, a former Deputy Minister of Sri Lanka, has been named in the latest Pandora Papers report which exposes the dealings of around 300 politicians, including world leaders, involved in tax heavens.
The report, released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), reveals several deals involving Nirupama Rajapaksa and her husband, Thirukumar Nadesan.
Nirupama Rajapaksa, who remained in politics until 2015, entered Parliament from the Hambantota district and is a close relative of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
The report reveals that Nirupama Rajapaksa and her husband have started a shell company to buy luxury apartments and property in London and Sydney, Australia.
Thiru Nadesan, who was once the Chairman of the Hotel Developers Company, which owns the Hilton Hotel in Colombo, is also a businessman with close ties to political figures, including local and foreign heads of state.
The Pandora Papers report also revealed that he had secured contracts to provide attractive consulting services through several other secret companies and was in the business of purchasing excellent artwork.
In 2018, one of the companies, Pacific Commodities, ha brought 31 valuable paintings and a number of other South Asian artifacts and sent to a high-security warehouse in Geneva, Switzerland, free of charge. The report estimates Mr Nadesan’s total wealth as at 2011 would be more than 160 million US dollars.
A number of investigative journalists from around the world have been involved in this comprehensive report on the illicit dealings and ill-gotten gains of a number of politicians, including tax evasion by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife.
