Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, has been exposed as to how he established secret offshore businesses and refused to publicly declare them to the Code of Conduct Bureau in one of the biggest leaks of financial documents.
Obi, a former vice presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general elections, was implicated following the revelation of the leaked files, dubbed the Pandora Papers, on Sunday.
The investigation featured more than 600 journalists in 117 countries, including a Nigerian online newspaper, Premium Times, trawling almost 12 million documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that reveal hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world’s rich and powerful.
According to Premium Times, Obi is one of the individuals whose hidden business activities was thrown open by the project. The newspaper stated that the politician and financial expert has a number of secret business dealings and relationships that he has for years kept to his chest. These are businesses he clandestinely set up and operated overseas, including in notorious tax and secrecy havens in ways that breached Nigerian laws.
The report stated that in 2010, more than four years after he became governor, Obi developed an appetite to set up his first discreet company in the British Virgin Island. He named the company Gabriella Investments Limited, after his daughter, Gabriella Nwamaka Frances Obi.
He approached Acces International, a secrecy enabler in Monaco, France, to help him incorporate an offshore entity in one of the world’s most notorious tax havens noted for providing conduits for wealthy and privileged corrupt political elites to hide stolen cash to avoid the attention of tax authorities.
He also paid Acces International to provide nominee directors for the company. Nominee directors are residents of tax havens paid to sit on boards of companies to hide the identities of real owners of offshore firms. Subsequently, Acces International officials headed to the British Virgin Island, a tax haven, where it contracted a local registered agent – Aleman Cordero Galindo & Lee Trust (BVI) Limited (Alcogal) — to set up Gabriella Investments Limited for Obi.
Gabriella Investment Limited was incorporated on November 17, 2010, with registration number 1615538. Two figureheads – Antony Janse Van Vuuren and Lance Lawson — were appointed its first directors while ultimate control resided with the former Anambra governor, the report claimed.
The report further stated that on the same day the company was incorporated, the nominee directors met and issued 50,000 shares of Gabriella Investment in favour of Hill International Holding Corporation, a shell International Business Company operating under the laws of Belize, another tax haven. The director of the company is Mr Van Vuuren, also one of the directors of Gabriella Investment.
Premium Times reports that Obi has since rearranged his offshore businesses by renaming Gabriella Investment as PMGG Investments Limited on February 10, 2017. The report claimed that the company’s new name is a combination of the first letters of the first names of Mr Obi’s nuclear family. P for Peter (ex-governor), M for Margaret (the ex-governor’s wife), G for Gabriella (the ex-governor’s daughter) and G for Gregory (the ex-governor’s son).
He has also now created a trust known as The Gabriella Settlement, an entity also registered in the BVI. By the current structuring of Obi’s wealth and offshore businesses, The Gabriella Settlement, which appears to hold all or a majority of his assets, is the sole shareholder of PMGG Investments, the report stated.
But according to the Nigerian online publication, Obi, who is known as an advocate of good governance, broke Nigerian laws by failing to withdraw from engaging in or directing a private business, except if it is farming, upon becoming a public officer, as stipulated by Section 6 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act.
It stated that Obi continued to be a director of Next International (UK) Limited for 14 months after becoming the governor of Anambra State.
The report also noted that Obi failed to declare “immediately after taking office and thereafter all” their properties, assets, and liabilities and those of his (or her) unmarried children under the age of eighteen years” as stipulated by Section 11, Part of the Fifth Schedule of the 1999 constitution (as amended).
He also continued to operate foreign bank accounts as an elected public official despite the Nigerian constitution and the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act forbidding such practice, the report claimed.
Asked by the online newspaper for clarification, the former Anambra governor admitted that he did not declare these companies and the funds and properties they hold in his asset declaration filings with the Code of Conduct Bureau.
He also claimed that he resigned his position from the company when he was inaugurated as governor. According to him, he “resigned immediately” upon sworn-in as governor by handing his wife his resignation letter. He suggested that his company might have failed to effect the changes on time or the UK Companies House did not immediately document his exit.
But checks by the paper at the UK companies registry indicated that Obi indeed resigned on May 16, 2008, and that it received his notice of resignation for electronic filing on June 16, 2008.
On his failure to declare his offshore assets, Obi stated that those offshore companies and assets are jointly owned with his family members and that he was not under obligation to declare companies jointly owned.
“I don’t declare what is owned with others. If my family owns something I won’t declare it. I didn’t declare anything I jointly owed with anyone,” the former governor told the paper.
“I am sure you too will not like to pay inheritance tax if you can avoid it,” he added.
When told by the newspaper that his view is contrary to the provisions of the constitution which requires him to declare all properties in his name, Obi claimed that he was not aware of that particular provision.
The publication, however, insisted that leaked records show Obi is the sole ultimate beneficial owner of the offshore companies, therefore, he did not even jointly own the company with anyone.
Asked why he continued to operate a foreign account while serving as a state governor in Nigeria, Obi explained that he received the advice to create an offshore structure from Lloyds TSB, which then introduced him to intermediaries who helped him to set it up.
However, the offence violates sections of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended.
