It has been disclosed in the Pandora papers that the owners of Radico Khaitan (Lalit Khaitan and Abhishek Khaitan) have their assets in the offshore trusts. For those who don’t know, the Pandora Papers are nearly a leak of 12 million documents released in 2021. These documents have incriminated many wealthy elites across globe for tax avoidance and corruption. The documents of the Trident Trust, British Virgin Islands, a trust deed for Timberlane Trust was settled between Timberlane Group Foundation, Panama (settlor), and Trident Trust, BVI (trustee), in 2012. In this deed, Lalit Khaitan and Abhishek Khaitan were mentioned as the “beneficiaries” of the trust. The Chairman and Managing Director of Radico Khaitan Limited is Lalit Khaitan while his son Abhishek Khaitan is the managing director.
Lalit Khaitan became billionaire two years after the Pandora papers revelation
Barely two years after the disclosure of the his assets in the offshore trust by the Pandora papers, Lalit Khaitan joined the elite three-comma club. He joined this club at the age of 80. The data sourced from Forbes states that Lalit Khaitan, the chairman of Delhi-based Radico Khaitan has become India’s newest billionaire, after the shares of his publicly traded company jumped more than 50% in 2023. The 2023 news reports states that he had an estimated net worth of $1 billion.
What do we know about Lalit Khaitan?
Lalit Khaitan is the chairman of Radico Khaitan. Radico Khaitan is popularly known for the manufacturing of alcoholic beverages like Magic Moments vodka, 8 PM whiskey, Old Admiral brandy and Rampur single malt. Earlier, Radico Khaitan was known as as Rampur Distillery & Chemical Company Ltd. Lalit Khaitan’s father, GN Khaitan, had purchased this loss-making company in the early 1970s . He inherited the distillery from his father in 1995 when GN Khaitan had divided the family businesses between his four sons. Lalit Khaitan pursued his education at prominent institutions such as Mayo College in Ajmer and St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata.
