Sanjay Shah

Sanjay Shah (born 11 September 1970 in London) is a Dubai-based British businessman. He has founded Solo Capital, a hedge fund firm[1] which closed in 2016,[2] and Autism Rocks, a charitable organization that raises awareness for autism.[3]

Sanjay Shah
Born1970 (age 49–50)
London, England
CitizenshipBritish
OccupationTrader
Home townDubai, United Arab Emirates

For the former Kenyan national, see History of British nationality law § British Nationals with no other citizenship.

Shah is a prime suspect in a case regarding the Danish Government being allegedly defrauded of 12.7 billion DKK for (1.65 billion euros) between 2012 and 2015, [4] part of the CumEx-Files involving multiple European nations and involves a number of the world's largest banks such as Barclays, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, Banco Santander, Macquarie Bank and Deutsche Bank[5]. Shah has admitted his company legally enabled clients to legitimately reclaim around DKK 8 billion from the Ministry of Taxation[6]. He claimed innocence, as the trade was legal and claimed that he was only using legal tax loopholes, where dividend income is taxed differently in various jurisdictions.[7][8]

Early life and education

Shah was born in 1970 in Marylebone, London. He attended King's College London for a degree in medicine, which he dropped in between. Shah later qualified as a chartered accountant.[9]

Career

Shah worked as a banker for Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Rabobank "over a period of almost 20 years and – after finding himself unemployed in 2008 – set up his own investment management, brokerage and principal trading business".[10] He founded the hedge fund firm Solo Capital in London,[1] which emplolyed "more than 100 financial experts across offices in London and Dubai". [10] Shah was investigated in regards to tax fraud and Solo Capital closed in 2016,[2] amid the investigation by Danish authorities,[2] while his London home and offices were raided by the British National Crime Agency, and Varengold Bank (co-owned by Shah) was raided by German authorities.[11][12]

Danish dividend tax fraud allegations

In 2010, in an audit report, the Ministry of Taxation (Denmark) was found to have ignored warnings on multiple occasions of a legal tax loophole[13] concerning dividend tax[14]. This was two years before Sanjay Shah's company Solo Capital enabled clients to be paid more than 8 billions of DKK in tax refunds[15]. In June 2018, the Ministry of Taxation (Denmark) filed a civil claim in the UK High Court of Justice, claiming it had been the victim of fraud, conspiracy, dishonesty and unjust enrichment[16].

Since 2015, Shah has been the prime suspect in a case regarding the Danish Government being allegedly defrauded of 12.7 billion DKK (1.65 billion euros) which was exposed in the CumEx-Files.[1][17][18] Shah was investigated in regards to the case in 2015.[19] The alleged tax fraud took place between 2012 and 2015[20] and is the largest in the history of Denmark.[11] Shah is also the prime suspect in similar alleged tax fraud cases involving more than 200 million euros and 65,000 euros (580,000 NOK) in Belgium and Norway respectively.[21][22][23][24] An additional 300 million euros in Belgium and 40 million euros (350 million NOK) in Norway were only stopped, because of warnings from the Danish authorities.[21][22][23][24] In addition, he is being investigated since 2016 by Germany and the UK via Eurojust, and by the US Treasury Department, as it is suspected that some of the money were funneled through US pension funds.[17][23][25]

As of December 2016, about 300 million euros had been seized by the Danish police in cooperation with foreign police forces.[26]

In 2017 two suspected co-conspirators were also charged by the Danish authorities.[27]

In September, 2018, a High Court of Justice judge in London entered a $1.3 billion default judgment against two UK companies, Solo Capital Limited and Elysium Global (UK) Limited, which were no longer in Shah's control, at the behest of the Danish tax agencySKAT (tax agency). The claims against these companies were not defended hence the default judgment. In the same month, finans.dk, a subsidiary of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, reported that assets in Elysium Global and Elysium Properties, two of Shah's companies, had been frozen.[28] and that Danish authorities have filed cases against him in the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts as well as the Commercial Court in London.[28]

In 2018, Britain, Germany and the United Arab Emirates had frozen, but not confiscated $660 million in assets belonging to Shah.[29]

In May 2019, a number of American pension funds agreed to return 1.6 billion DKK (239 million USD) in a related tax-fraud case.[30] In September 2019, German North Channel Bank accepted a fine of 110 million DKK for its involvement in a related tax fraud scheme.[31][32] Shah remains the main suspect in the main tax fraud case.[31]

In September 2019, Danish tax authorities reported that a ruling in Dubai against a 'central player' in the tax fraud case provides access to 9 million documents, of which 3.5 million had already been transferred.[33] Shah's spokesman, Jack Irvine, has confirmed that these documents came from Shah.[33] As of September 2019, the total number of Danish indictments against persons and companies involved in the tax fraud scheme has risen to 476 with projected legal costs of 2.4 billion Danish kroner.[33] In May 2020, the Tax Minister Morten Bodskov announced that the fees paid to lawyers was USD350 million, and that 250 new employees had been added to the Tax Office to address massive failures in control[34].

In September 2019, the authorities have so far found no evidence of fraud in the UK, Germany or Denmark. [35]

In November 2019, British and Danish authorities reached an agreement that the main prosecution against Shah should take place in a Danish court of law, and both countries support his extradition from Dubai to Denmark.[36]

Extradition of a suspect from the United Arab Emirates has been described by a Danish expert as 'almost impossible' due to reciprocity as UAE implements death sentence for certain crimes and Denmark can't do this due to human rights concerns.[23][37]

As of 2019, Shah has denied any wrongdoing.[2] In papers lodged in London’s High Court as part of a civil case brought by the Danish tax authority SKAT, Shah’s lawyers rejected the allegations against him. A 204-page defence statement said: “Solo Capital Partners, Mr Shah’s firm, provided clearing services for clients to engage in lawful and legitimate trading strategies that were conducted at all times in accordance with Danish law: doing so was neither dishonest nor unlawful. “This case has caused significant embarrassment to Skat and to the Danish government generally, particularly because dividend arbitrage trading is a widely known and wholly legitimate trading strategy. “Other European governments have taken steps to limit such trading activity. Skat is attempting retrospectively to amend Danish fiscal law and to cover up or remedy Skat’s earlier failure to limit such trading activity and thereby attack the defendants, who have done nothing dishonest nor illegitimate.” [38]

The Danish Prosecutor interrogated Shah in Abu Dhabi over three days in a voluntary interview in September 2019[39]. As of February 2020, it was reported that Denmark had not brought any criminal charges against Shah [40].

Personal life

Shah is married and has 3 children. In 2009, he moved to Dubai "after falling in love with the city".[10] His youngest son, Nikhil,[41] was diagnosed with autism in 2011.[10] After working with therapists and medical experts for 3 years, he decided to raise awareness about autism and in 2014 founded Autism Rocks in 2014.[42] Autism Rocks conducts music gigs worldwide to raise funds for charity and to create awareness about autism.

gollark: It just doesn't remove *wikilinks*.
gollark: It's not without transformation.
gollark: https://git.osmarks.net/osmarks/potatOS/
gollark: Are you saying that that demo doesn't work?
gollark: PotatOS, for instance.

See also

References
  1. Strasburg, Jenny; Duxbury, Charles (4 November 2015). "Danish Tax Probe Targets Small London Hedge Fund, Other Firms". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  2. "Troubled hedge fund Solo Capital shuts its doors". The Telegraph. 16 July 2016.
  3. Lynskey, Dorian (3 February 2015). "Prince review – 'What we're going to do right now is play 14 hits in a row!'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  4. Hyltoft, Vibe (16 August 2019). "Britisk whistleblower afslørede dansk udbyttesvindel". Berlingske.
  5. https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/penge/netvaerk-af-finansfolk-og-storbanker-har-plyndret-danmark-og-store-dele-af-europa
  6. https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/penge/milliarder-fossede-ud-af-statskassen-ny-model-refusion-af-udbytteskat-klar
  7. "Denmark Confiscates Indian-Origin Tycoon's London Property Over Tax Fraud". NDTV.com. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  8. "Subscribe to read | Financial Times". www.ft.com. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  9. Ledwith, Mario (10 February 2020). "Hedge fund boss Sanjay Shah in £1.5bn tax fraud trial". This is Money. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  10. "In aid of autism". fridaymagazine.ae. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  11. "Uden for kontrol: Svindelmistænkte købte egen bank i august ("Fraud suspect bought his own bank in August")". DR News. 5 November 2015.
  12. "Solo's silence is anything but golden". Financial Times. 4 November 2015.
  13. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-7988327/Hedge-fund-boss-Sanjay-Shah-1-5bn-tax-fraud-trial.html
  14. https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/danes-failed-to-heed-cum-ex-warnings-before-hedge-fund-trades
  15. https://www.occrp.org/en/goldensands/british-financier-under-investigation-for-tax-fraud-Owned-56-million-in-dubai-properties
  16. https://www.law360.com/articles/1274460/denmark-can-draw-line-on-searches-in-tax-fraud-case
  17. "Politi i fire lande jagter Sanjay Shah ("Police in four countries are pursuing Sanjay Shah")". DR News. 11 December 2016.
  18. "Ny opgørelse fra Skat: Vi er blevet snydt for 12,3 milliarder ("New review from the tax authorities: We were defrauded of 12.3 billion kroner")". TV2 News. 23 August 2016.
  19. "Hedge fund boss in £1bn tax fraud inquiry". The Times. 15 April 2016.
  20. "Svindelmistænkt har netværk af selskaber i alle afkroge af verden ("Suspect in fraud has web of companies throughout the world")". Berlingske Business. 27 November 2015.
  21. "Skatteskandalen vokser: Belgien og Norge ramt af samme svindel som Danmark ("Tax case expands: Belgium and Norway hit by same fraud as Denmark")". DR News. 11 December 2016.
  22. "Danmark er ikke alene om at blive fusket for milliarder ("Denmark not alone in being cheated for billions")". finans.dk. 11 December 2016.
  23. "Der große Coup: Der milliardenschwere Steuerschwindel des Shah ("The big coup: The billion tax fraud by Shah")" (in German). Focus. 30 May 2017.
  24. "Skatteetaten avslørte svindel for 350 millioner kroner ("Norwegian Tax Administration reveal fraud for 350 million kroner")" (in Norwegian). ABC Nyheter. 2 January 2017.
  25. "US pension funds involved in billion kroner SKAT fraud". CPHPost. 9 December 2016.
  26. "Tysk politi mistænker Sanjay Shah for hvidvask i dansk milliardsag ("German police suspect Sanjay Shah laundered money in Danish billion-case")". DR News. 12 December 2016.
  27. "Politiet sigter to for svindel i sag om 12 milliarder ("Police charge two with fraud in 12 billion case")". TV2 News. 10 July 2017.
  28. Advokater: Svindelmistænkte Sanjay Shah er ved at løbe tør for penge, finans.dk, 5 September 2018.
  29. Where in the World Is Denmark’s $2 Billion? by David Segal, Oct. 5, 2018, New York Times
  30. U.S. Funds Agree to Pay Denmark $239 Million in Tax Fraud Case by Christian Weinberg, May 29, 2019, Bloombergtax
  31. Bank erkender bedrageri mod Danmark, DR News, 24 September 2019.
  32. Denmark fines German bank $16 million in dividend tax scam, Reuters, 23 September 2019
  33. Danmark har fået udleveret millioner af dokumenter om svindelmistænkte Sanjay Shah DR, 16 September 2019
  34. https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report-international/after-350-million-lawyers-bill-denmark-steps-up-cum-ex-chase
  35. https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/cum-ex-bank-mainz-daenemark-1.4610842
  36. Udbytteskandalen: Shah skal retsforfølges i Danmark, DR News, 15 November 2019.
  37. "Ekspert: Udlevering af mistænkt fra Dubai er næsten umulig ("Expert: Extradition from Dubai is almost impossible")". DR News. 27 November 2015.
  38. Dubai resident fights Denmark over £1.5 bn tax fraud allegations June 12, 2019 The National (Abu_Dhabi)
  39. https://politiken.dk/indland/art7553620/F%C3%B8rst-efter-fire-%C3%A5r-har-politiet-afh%C3%B8rt-den-mist%C3%A6nkte-hovedmand-i-udbyttesag
  40. https://www.cityam.com/cum-ex-the-mammoth-european-financial-crime-scandal-comes-to-london/
  41. "Sanjay Shah's tips to make schooling easier for children with autism". Autism Hub. 3 September 2016. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  42. "AUTISM ROCKS: Raising 'Awareness through Music' around the World. VELVET Magazine". 7 May 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
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