The Cayman Trail: A Tax Haven, TMC Funds and an Alleged Money Maze

A scam carefully woven, executed with sheer perfection and manipulated neatly by deft handlers!

Yes, you have guessed it right – the tale of a tiny, obscure island – Cayman---in the remote Caribbean Islands in the Caribbean Sea in the other part of the globe has suddenly ‘erupted’ in the limelight, hogging banner headlines, thanks to the now-ousted-from-power Trinamool Congress of West Bengal.

A series of Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids early this week revealed stunning information about a mysterious money trail worth several hundred crores that the then fund managers of Trinamool Congress had carefully routed to this conspicuous tax haven named Cayman Islands.

ED sleuths, alerted by Cyber Police, Salt Lake (Bidhannagar) in a case involving alleged embezzlement, unlawful extortion of money and siphoning off the same to re-route through certain bank accounts of TMC to a ‘fishy’ aviation company and its associated entity, first froze three bank accounts of the TMC, holding deposits worth Rs 440.42 crore, under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act).

“The amount lying in three HDFC Bank accounts of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) were frozen under Section 17(1-A) of the PMLA” ED said.

ED Raids Yield Stunning Info

Then the investigators launched simultaneous search operations under PMLA,2002 at five premises in and around Kolkata; the premises belonging to the residence as well as office and other entities of Carewell group of companies that operates in the aviation sector.

Preliminary probe revelations left the ED officials stunned; according to them, TMC had allegedly invested its own corpus --- around Rs 160 crore-- into M/s Carewell Aviation India Pvt Ltd, and its related entity, mostly between April 2023 and June 2026.

M/s Carewell Aviation India Pvt Ltd then routed Rs 82.96 crore between 2023 and 2026 to another newly incorporated related entity for the purchase of an Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and an Agusta 109 Grand New helicopter.

To avoid the detection of the scam, a sum of Rs 112 crore was used for these purchases. “It was also revealed that USD 1.7 million was arranged as an unsecured loan in 2023 from a Cayman Islands-based entity to purchase the helicopter,” the ED spokesperson added.

Rebel TMC leader Ritabrato Banerjee

Interestingly, the tale does not end here; it takes a sudden expected turn.

“These Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and Agusta helicopter were subsequently rented out to TMC itself, even though they were purchased from the corpus of TMC. Later, substantial amounts were transferred over varying periods of time on the pretext of aircraft usage,” agencies quoted the ED spokesperson as having said.

In fact, this above-mentioned dubious arrangement is under detail investigation to ascertain the actual beneficial purpose of the transactions.

The probe preceded a written complaint to the Cyber Crime section of the Salt Lake police by the rebel group of the TMC MLAs seeking a detail investigation into the source of the fund in the bank and its transactions.

Police thereafter, registered an FIR based on the rebel TMC leaders’ complaint.

Where are the Cayman Islands located?

The Cayman Islands are a small archipelago rising from the Caribbean Sea. While geographically it is a British Overseas Territory, its significance on the world's economic and tourism map is immense. Made up primarily of three main islands — Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman — the archipelago is renowned for its turquoise waters and white sandy beaches, while also being known as one of the world's leading financial centres and a prominent "tax haven."

Located northwest of Jamaica and south of Cuba, the islands' chief draw is their natural beauty. The capital, George Town, sits on Grand Cayman, which serves as the region's economic and tourism hub. The archipelago lies roughly 15,000 kilometres from Kolkata.

An economic powerhouse and tax haven

The answer to how an archipelago with a population of under one lakh became one of the wealthiest regions in the world lies in its tax regime.

The Cayman Islands levy no income tax, corporate tax, or property tax; because of this lenient tax system, thousands of multinational corporations, banks, and other financial institutions worldwide have registered their branches or parked funds there.

According to multiple reports, the number of companies registered on paper far exceeds the actual resident population. Although international pressure has periodically been applied to curb tax evasion, it has yielded little tangible result.

Further investigation which is currently on under a court-appointed special officer, is likely to yield more information. “All this explains why fugitive TMC leader Binay Mishra, the main accused in an embezzlement case on coal, is on the run and where he has parked his party’s illegal money abroad via Dubai,” said a top BJP source who spoke on a condition of anonymity.