Murthy Akshata (Akshata Murty)

Murthy Akshata (Akshata Murty)

Biography

2023: Loss of $61 million as Infosys shares collapse

On April 17, 2023, it became known that the wife of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Akshat Murthy lost about $61 million. This happened after a sharp drop in the value of shares of a large Indian company Infosys.

Akshata Murthy is an Indian fashion designer known for her father, the creator of the large Indian IT company Infosys, billionaire Narayan Murthy, whose fortune is estimated at $4.5 billion. The fortune of Sunak's wife, who owns a 0.94% stake in her father's business, according to Bloomberg, exceeds $870 million, which makes her richer than King Charles III himself.

Infosys shares fell on April 17, 2023 after its management put together a negative outlook for India's tech sector, leading to a wave of IT company ratings downgrades by brokers. Shares of the company fell 9.4%, the biggest drop since March 2020. However, Murthy's share as of April 18, 2023, despite the losses, is still worth about $809 million.

Murty's wealth and her outside interests have been a recurring theme in her husband's political career, according to Bloomberg. In 2022, it was revealed that she had the status of a non-domicile and did not pay British income tax abroad. Akshata Murthy said her arrangements were fully legal, but also decided to start paying British taxes on those revenues. According to local media reports, Murthy was able to evade taxes on an annual dividend of about $14.31 million, paying $37 thousand to maintain the status of a non-resident in the UK.

In 2022, an investigation was launched against British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that he did not indicate all the property and shares in the companies that belong to his wife. According to the UK Department of Justice, when Rishi Sunak served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had the authority to cover up his wife's activities and develop profitable schemes. However, Sunak in April 2022 appealed to the parliamentary communications committee with a statement that his wife Akshata Murthy's stake in Koru Kids, a child care company, was declared.^[1]

Notes