Rishi Sunak faces questions over family stake in firm with Russian connections

Rishi Sunak is facing awkward questions about his family connections with a huge Indian IT consultancy founded by his father in law that has reportedly not severed its ties with Russia.

The Chancellor said on Wednesday in his Spring Statement speech that he was “urging firms very carefully about their investments in Russia and how they may aid the Putin regime.”

Yet his wife Akshata Murthy reportedly owns a stake in the Bangalore based Infosys worth more than £400 million.

The business’s co-founder and emeritus chairman is her billionaire father NR Narayana Murthy. He started Infosys in 1981 and was chief executive  from 1981 to 2002 as well as the chairman from 2002 to 2011.

Its shares have rocketed in recent years and Infosys is now worth more than $100 billion, making it the world’s 138^th most valuable company. The Murthy family’s 2.8 per cent holding is worth almost $3 billion (£2.3 billion) at the current share price.

As an Indian company Infosys is not subject to the sanctions imposed by the British Government. It has an office on Kulakov Lane in Moscow and in 2016 set up a development centre in the Russian capital.

At the time the company said the base would operate as a centre of excellence “in turbo machinery, aerospace and automotive” tapping into the “wealth of heavy engineering skills” in the country.

Infosys also reportedly has historic ties with Russia’s fourth largest financial institution Alfa-Bank, which had its assets frozen today by the UK government in the latest round of sanctions.

It is controlled by Mikhail Friedman who was sanctioned by Britain earlier this month, and his business partners. Friedman, who was born in Ukraine, owns Athlone House, a £150 million mansion overlooking Hampstead Heath.

So far Mr Sunak has refused to engage with questions about Infosys telling Sky News presenter Jayne Secker that “I’m an elected politician and I am here to talk to you about what I am responsible for, my wife is not.”

Reference: Evening Standards: Jonathan Prynn