This was brought to light by the Harvard Russian scholar Yvgenia Albats in her book The State Within A State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia. The Swiss newsmagazine Schweizer Illustrierte (November 11, 1991) provided more details. Citing newly—opened KGB records, it reported that Sonia Gandhi, widow of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was controlling a secret account worth 2.5 billion Swiss francs (about 2 billion dollars at current exchange rates) in a Swiss bank in her minor son's name. This was reported also by the Indian columnist A.G. Noorani in 1998.
In addition to assets in foreign banks worth in the billions of dollars, Sonia Gandhi controls at least as much within India, in the form of trusts, funds and foundations in the names of Nehru and Gandhi. Soon after Rajiv's assassination, a sympathetic nation voted her a billion rupees (about 22 million dollars at today's exchange rate) to set up a foundation in her husband's memory. All this gives her the power to dispense political favors and patronage on a vast scale.
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