Country leaders, government officials and ministers in some of the world’s key energy markets are among those identified in the Panama Papers leak, which reveals the secrets of how the super rich use offshore accounts to channel billions of dollars.
The Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalism said the extensive investigation detailed the offshore holdings of a dozen current and former world leaders, as well as businessmen, criminals, celebrities and sports stars.
The offshore financial dealings of the rich and famous have been exposed by a cache of 11.5 million leaked records from Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The Panama Papers are said to provide data on around 214,000 offshore companies.
The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which first received the data more than a year ago, said it was confident the material was genuine.
The Munich-based daily was offered the data through an encrypted channel by an anonymous source who requested no monetary compensation.
Founded by German-born Juergen Mossack, the company has offices across the globe and is among the world’s biggest creators of shell companies, the newspaper said.
The ICIJ website has published details of “power players” who it has identified from within the millions of pages of data. These include:
Angola’s Minister of Petroleum José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos has served since 2008. An engineer by training, Botelho de Vasconcelos worked for years with Angola’s state oil company, Sonangol.
Botelho de Vasconcelos first served as petroleum minister from 1999 to 2002 before becoming Minister for Energy and Water. He was re-appointed Minister of Petroleum in 2008 and was president of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2009.
In 2002 he was named one of two individuals who had power of attorney for Medea Investments Limited, a company that put its own value at $1 million. The company was incorporated on September 13, 2001 in Niue and moved to Samoa in 2006. It was inactivated in 2009. In both Niue and Samoa, the company was held by “bearer” shares, which belong to the individual who physically holds them, making it easier to obscure ownership.
Jesus Villanueva rose quickly within Venezuala’s PdVSA, the state oil company, after Hugo Chavez’s election as president in 1998. Villanueva served as general auditor, then as a director in 2002, later returning to auditor and then becoming a director again in 2005.
Mossack Fonseca’s Luxembourg issued a power of attorney to Villanueva, giving him the right to authorize transactions. However, internal emails showed that the founders of the Panamanian law firm revoked his authority because of “a high risk on doing business with this person” as he had “direct access to the public treasury, and the origin of his funds” could be “questioned at any given moment,” so the probabilities of a scandal” were “higher.”
Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua rose to power in the Republic of Congo through his family’s close association with President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, first serving as the president’s hydrocarbons adviser, then becoming head of the national oil company (SNPC) in 1998.
He was implicated in a massive diversion of company funds that came to light in 2003. A dropped lawsuit two years later by one of Congo’s creditors accused Itoua and the SNPC of conspiring to “divert oil revenues … into the pockets of powerful Congolese public officials.”
Itoua had power of attorney to represent two offshore companies in 2004, while he was energy adviser to the President of the Republic of Congo and CEO of SNPC, the Congolese national oil company.
The companies, Denvest Capital Strategies Inc., based in the British Virgin Islands, and Grafin Associated SA, based in Panama, had previously issued unregistered shares which belong to the person who physically holds them.
James Ibori, governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta State from 1999 to 2007, pleaded guilty in a London court in 2012 to conspiracy to defraud and money laundering offenses.
Ibori admitted using his position as governor to corruptly obtain and divert up to $75 million out of Nigeria through a network of offshore companies, although authorities alleged that the total amount he embezzled may have exceeded $250 million.
Ibori, who received a 13-year prison sentence, used millions of dollars to support a lavish lifestyle that included six houses in London and a fleet of Range Rovers, Bentleys and Mercedes.
Mossack Fonseca was the registered agent of four offshore companies connected to James Ibori
In 2012, Ibori pleaded guilty in a London court to laundering and fraud charges. During court hearings in the United Kingdom, prosecutors claimed that Ibori opened a Swiss bank account in the name of Stanhope Investments through which millions of dollars were later channeled to ultimately buy a $20 million private jet.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates and emir of Abu Dhabi is one of the world’s wealthiest men. In Dubai, the world’s tallest building, named Burj Khalifa, is a symbol of his effort to diversify UAE’s oil-based economy.
British Virgin Islands companies were used to buy luxury real estate and other properties.
Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud became King of Saudi Arabia in January 2015, assuming the throne after the death of his brother King Abdullah.
A British Virgin Island company was used for mortgages on luxury homes in London and to hold a yacht Erga, named after the King’s palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani ruled over the energy-rich nation of Qatar from 1995 to 2013 after he deposed his father, who was travelling in Switzerland, in a bloodless coup.
In June 2013, Al Thani handed over power to his son, saying it was time for “a new generation.” During his 18 years in power, Al Thani was widely-credited with increasing Qatar’s political clout and growing its economy.
In March 2014, less than a year after Al Thani resigned as Qatar’s ruler, a Luxembourg lawyer contacted Mossack Fonseca to convey Al Thani’s interest in buying an off-the-shelf company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The company would hold a bank account in Luxembourg and shares in two South African companies, according to the lawyer.
Between 2007-2013, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani held three high-profile positions as Qatar’s prime minister, foreign minister and head of the Qatar Investment Authority, one of the world’s richest sovereign wealth funds.
His appointment as prime minister in 2007 solidified his position as the go-to person for matters ranging from wars in Syria and Afghanistan to corporate mergers and other business deals.
An offshore company was used to manage a $300 million yacht.
Ayad Allawi, vice president of Iraq (2014-2015) and interim Prime Minister of Iraq (2004-2005).
Mossack Fonseca supplied his 1985 Panama-registered company IMF Holdings Inc. with people who stood in for Allawi as directors.
He was listed as the sole shareholder in 2000. Until its dissolution in 2013, IMF owned a house in Kingston upon Thames, England . As of April 2013 the property appeared under the name of Allawi and had an estimated value of about $1.5 million.
Allawi’s media office confirmed that he “is the sole director and shareholder of Foxwood Estates Limited, Moonlight Estates Limited and IMF Holdings Inc.”
The email noted that IMF was established to own residential property purchased with Allawi’s personal assets based on security and legal advice “in light of an assassination attempt on him.”
It also said that “any income generated in the United Kingdom from the properties owned by the companies has been properly accounted for” and “taxes have been paid promptly and on time.”
Mossack Fonseca said it had operated “beyond reproach” for 40 years and had never been charged with criminal wrongdoing.
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