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Africa's Role in the Panama Papers Saga

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Africa's Role in the Panama Papers Saga Legalbrief | your legal news hub Sunday 26 September 2021 Africa’s role in the Panama Papers saga Like the rest of the world, Africans woke up a week ago to a slew of headlines generated by the release of the Panama Papers. This leak of confidential information, described as the biggest in history, lifts the veil on the murky world of offshore tax havens, revealing how politicians and businessmen benefit from a system that is designed to be completely unaccountable. The revelations include: * Enrico Monfrini, a Swiss attorney hired by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to track missing state funds in Swiss banks is himself operating more than 178 companies in offshore tax havens. Monfrini was hired in 2000 by the country's new civilian government to help recover more than $4bn allegedly looted by former military dictator, Sani Abacha. The documents showed that Monfrini, an influential legal practitioner in Switzerland, is director of 178 companies scattered around Panama and the British Virgin Islands. A report on the allAfrica site notes that while the documents do not directly implicate Monfrini in any crime, the revelation points to the hypocrisy of a man widely revered for his remarkable ability to dismantle tax evaders and looters across jurisdictions. * Dealings by President Jacob Zuma’s nephew and two individuals linked to J Arthur Brown’s Fidentia saga have surfaced in the Panama Papers, and have drawn the interest of the South African Revenue Service and financial services authorities. A Moneyweb report notes that the South Africans named are President Jacob Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse Zuma, and two people central to the fraudulent Fidentia scheme, Graham Maddock and Steven Goodwin. In the Fidentia case, leaked Mossack Fonseca’s records show that Graham Maddock paid the law firm $59 000 in 2005 and 2006 to create two sets of offshore companies, including one called Fidentia North America. * Khulubuse Zuma stashed away money in the British Virgin Islands in 2010, after being allocated two DRC oil fields, notes a Mail & Guardian report. It says in 2014 City Press reported that this allocation followed a few months after a state visit by President Zuma to DRC President Joseph Kabila. The oil deal was reported to be worth R100bn. Khulubuse Zuma is named in the Panama Papers as being authorised to represent Caprikat Limited, one of the two offshore companies involved in the controversially acquired oil fields in the DRC. In late summer 2010, as published reports raised questions about the acquisition, British Virgin Islands authorities ordered Mossack Fonseca to provide background information on Zuma, which the law firm had not previously obtained. * Impala Platinum and Zimbabwean Government officials will probe the alleged involvement of the company's Zimplats unit after the Panama Papers showed it used an offshore company to pay some salaries in Zimbabwe. A Fin24 report notes that the leaked documents reveal that Zimplats engaged an offshore company, HR Consultancy, to pay management in Zimbabwe. Implats spokesperson Johan Theron said the company would institute a probe into the matter. * The president of the Court of Appeal in Botswana is also listed, courtesy of dealing with Pam Golding Properties, which is said to have set up ‘seven offshore companies domiciled and registered in the British Virgin Islands’. A report on the BDlive site notes the Panama Papers said Judge Ian Stuart Kirby‚ a ‘close associate’ of President Ian Khama‚ invested ‘in at least seven offshore companies between 2005 and 2009’. While the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR) said ‘there is no suggestion in the leaked information that the companies Kirby invested in were specifically avoiding or evading tax commitments’‚ it did raise issues that none of ‘the names of his fellow investors are publicly known’. * Nigeria’s Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (Serap) has called on the Code of Conduct Bureau to investigate current and past high-ranking public officers implicated in the Panama Papers. The Premium Times reports that the statement, which was signed by Serap director Adetokunbo Mumuni, has given the bureau two weeks days to conduct the investigation. It said any suspects should be prosecuted. It added that if the bureau failed to investigate the cases, it would not hesitate to litigate to compel it to carry out its constitutional responsibility. ‘Serap believes that the Panama Papers have shown the extent to which public officers in the country are concealing their stolen wealth in safe havens and secrecy jurisdictions,’ it said..
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