Indians have stashed away over $500 billion in various foreign banks, says CBI director AP Singh. Indians are the largest depositors in stashing away illegal monies in tax havens. Particularly India has suffered from the flow of illegal funds to tax havens such as Mauritius, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, British Virgin islands etc.

CBI director AP Singh, who was speaking at the inauguration of first interpol global programme on anti-corruption and asset recovery said "It is estimated that around 500 billion dollars of illegal (Black) money belonging to Indians is deposited in tax havens abroad. Largest depositors in Swiss Banks are also reported to be Indians." He said getting information about such illegal transactions is a time taking process as investigators have to peel each layer by sending judicial requests to the country where such deposits have been made. "53 per cent of the countries said to be least corrupt by the Transparency International Index are offshore tax havens, where most of the corrupt money goes.

The tax havens include New Zealand which is ranked as the least corrupt country, Singapore ranked number five and Switzerland number seven," Singh said. There is a lack of political will in the leading tax haven states to part with the information because they are aware of the extent to which their economies have become "geared to this flow of illegal capitals from the poorer countries." The CBI Director said tracing, freezing, confiscation and repatriation of stolen assets is a legal challenge, a complex process which requires expertise and political will.