Calls for Rishi Sunak to be more open about finances after silence over loan source

theguardian.com:

Labour is calling on Rishi Sunak to be more transparent about his finances after the prime ministerial candidate declined to answer questions about the source of hundreds of thousands of pounds he loaned to a company that he jointly owned with his wife.

The move is the latest request for the former chancellor to explain details about how he has managed his family’s fortune, which is said to total £730m and has led to him being routinely referred to as the UK’s richest MP.

The vast majority of the Conservative leadership candidate’s wealth is derived from his marriage to Akshata Murty, a member of the family that founded the Indian technology group Infosys, in which she owns a stake worth about £690m.

However, Sunak also worked in the hedge fund industry between 2006 and 2013, raising questions about whether the loans that he personally made to his UK business came from profits generated in international tax havens.

James Murray, the shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, said: “Rishi Sunak wants to be our next prime minister, but again it seems he is unable to give a straight answer to questions over his relationship with tax havens. It is hard to avoid the impression he has something to hide.”

Between 2013 and 2014, Sunak loaned £652,449 to Catamaran Ventures UK, a company he jointly owned with Murty at the time, according to documents filed at Companies House.

The loans were made shortly after Sunak had worked in America between 2010 and 2013 for the US branch of the hedge fund Theleme Partners, where he managed three entities based in the US tax haven of Delaware.

Sunak was entitled to a share of the profits made by one of the Delaware entities, US filings suggest, while industry sources said he was also likely to have