However, even before the trial began, the oligarch used his Seychellois citizenship to arrange a swift legal split from his wife, to whom he then transferred at least $95 million in assets\u201439 plots of land, one island and numerous corporate holdings registered in Seychelles and the British Virgin Islands, including those that owned even more real estate\u2014as part of the divorce settlement. \u00a0Not that bankruptcy would have necessarily hurt Batelco\u2019s chances of recovering their money under Seychelles\u2019 prior<\/i> law on insolvency. But about a year after Siva lost his case in Britain, the island nation \u201creformed\u201d its bankruptcy statute.<\/p>\n
The story highlights the role of questionable offshore tax shelters, of which Seychelles is a small but hyper-caffeinated example, in allowing an international elite to transcend borders and sovereign jurisdictions in order to safeguard their assets.<\/p>\n
The 59-year-old Siva first rose to prominence in India\u2019s southern state of Tamil Nadu in the mid-1980s after he acquired Sterling Computers and sold cut-rate PCs in a burgeoning subcontinental tech industry, transforming the company into one of India\u2019s top three in its field. Frequently adorned with gold Rolexes and known for his obsession with health food and personal fitness, Siva formerly lived and worked out of presidential suites at the Ritz Carlton and Pan Pacific hotels in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Over the past four decades, he’s had a hand in all sorts of things: engineering, shipping, commodities trading, and alternative energy. According to NGO Grain<\/span>, an international nonprofit that supports small farmers, his Siva Group gobbled up about \u201ca million hectares of land in the Americas, Africa and Asia, primarily for oil palm plantations,\u201d making him \u201cone of the world\u2019s largest farmland holders.\u201d<\/p>\n Siva aimed to set up a new U.S. operation by relocating to Fremont, California, in 1996, buying M.C. Hammer\u2019s mansion following the latter\u2019s own loss of fortune, but by the mid-2000s, he opted to move to Seychelles and became a full citizen. This decision was followed almost immediately by his nomination as ambassador-at-large.<\/p>\n In a 2008 U.S. State Department cable alleged that Siva was part of a Seychellois \u201cbusiness mafia\u201d that was buying land from the Seychelles government at the expense of a battered and hopelessly corrupt national economy\u2014this, as the nation was\u00a0seeking bailouts from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.<\/p>\n Designed by Rachel Gold<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Indian-born oligarch who purchased M.C. Hammer\u2019s former mansion in California may have followed the previous owner into decadence and bankruptcy, but, unlike the bejeweled and balloon-panted rapper, this flamboyant figure appears to have benefited from the relaxed laws of … Continue reading ![\"Designed](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/20130409_Island-paradise-cEn.jpg\")
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