The Pandora Papers capture a detailed revelation of involvement of ‘high and mighty’ in questionable deals, and why concerned authorities should beam its searchlight on those involved in the scandal.
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A phrase deeply rooted in Greek mythology, a “Pandora’s box” or more colloquially, a “Pandora” is used to describe any source of great unsettling, unforeseen woes or unexpected troubles. It can be likened to a jar of afflictions, a can of worms and a closet full of skeletons. It was therefore a perfect metaphor to describe the public release of high-secret documents exposing shady, crooked and deviant acts which served as moral indictment on some of the world’s most prominent, wealthy and popular figures. Like hot knife in butter; it pierced right through the heart of some dark and furtive dealings of members of the globe’s high and mighty; bearing large semblance of an ultimate and inescapable doomsday verdict on the misdeeds of some of the planet’s crème-de-la-crème.
The Pandora Papers investigation is the world’s largest-ever journalistic collaboration, involving more than 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries. It exposed the convoluted entanglement of political power and secretive offshore finance. Based upon the most expansive leak of tax haven files in history, the investigation revealed the secret deals and hidden assets of more than 330 politicians and high-level public officials, big political donors, renowned business tycoons, people from the organised criminal underworld, spy chiefs, religious leaders, royal families, music and showbiz celebrities, sports personalities and so on in more than 90 countries and territories. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a nonprofit newsroom and network of journalists centered in Washington, the United States of American, obtained more than 11.9 million financial records, containing 2.94 terabytes of confidential information from 14 offshore service providers. The investigation was therefore based on confidential records of these offshore service providers of professional services to wealthy individuals and corporations seeking to incorporate shell companies, trusts, foundations and other entities in low or no-tax jurisdictions that leaked. The entities enable owners to conceal their identities from the public and sometimes from regulators. Often, the providers help them to open bank accounts in countries with light financial regulation. The data leaked to ICIJ and shared with media partners around the world, arrived in various formats: as documents, images, emails, spreadsheets, among others. The records include an unprecedented amount of information on so-called beneficial owners of entities registered in the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Hong Kong, Belize, Panama, South Dakota and other secret jurisdictions. They also contain information on the shareholders, directors and officers. In addition to the rich, the famous and the infamous, those that were exposed in the Pandora scandal include people who do not represent the public interest and who do not appear in normal reporting, such as small business owners, doctors, lawyers, accountants and others, usually reclusive individuals who shy away from public attention. The files revealed secret offshore holdings of more than 130 billionaires from 45 countries, including 46 Russian oligarchs. In 2021, according to Forbes, 100 of the billionaires had a collective fortune of more than $600 billion.
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For nearly two years, ICIJ organised and led an investigation that grew to encompass more than 600 journalists in 117 countries and territories. The documents spanned five decades, with most of them created between 1996 and 2020. They include information on more than 29,000 beneficial owners, the ultimate owners of offshore assets.
While some of the files dated back to 1970s, most of those reviewed by ICIJ were traceable to the past 25 years. They cover a wide range of matters: the creation of shell companies, foundations and trusts; the use of such entities to purchase real estate, yachts, jets and life insurance; to make investments and to move money between bank accounts; estate planning and other inheritance issues; and the avoidance of taxes through complex financial schemes. Some documents were tied to financial crimes, including money laundering. The more than 330 politicians exposed by the scandal were from more than 90 countries and territories. They used entities in secret jurisdictions to buy real estate, hold money in trust, own other companies and other assets, sometimes anonymously. The Pandora Papers investigation also reveals how banks and law firms work closely with offshore service providers to design complex corporate structures. The files show that providers do not always know their customers, despite their legal obligation to ensure they do not do business with people who engage in questionable dealings. The investigation also reports on how the United States trust providers have taken an advantage of some states’ laws that promote secrecy and help wealthy overseas clients hide wealth to avoid taxes in their home countries. The 11.9 million-plus records were largely unstructured. More than half of the files (6.4 million) were text documents, including more than four million PDFs, some of which ran to more than 10,000 pages. The documents include passports, bank statements, tax declarations, company incorporation records, real estate contracts and due diligence questionnaires. There were also more than 4.1 million images and emails in the leak. Spreadsheets made up four per cent of the documents, or more than 467,000. The records also include slide shows and audio and video files.
While this is by no means the first release of large secret documents that got the attention of the world, the Pandora Papers presented a new challenge because the 14 providers had different ways of presenting and organising information. Some organised documents by client, some by various offices, and others had no apparent system at all. A single document sometimes contained years’ worth of emails and attachments. Some providers digitized their records and structured them in spreadsheets; others kept paper files that were scanned. Some PDFs contained spreadsheets that had to be reconstructed into spreadsheets. The documents arrived in English, Spanish, Russian, French, Arabic, Korean and other languages, requiring extensive coordination among ICIJ partners. The Pandora Papers gathered information on more than 27,000 companies and 29,000 so-called ultimate beneficial owners from 11 of the providers, or more than twice the number of beneficial owners identified in the 2016 Panama Papers scandal; which was another mind-boggling public release of something similar. The Pandora Papers connected offshore activity to more than twice as many politicians and public officials as did the Panama Papers. And the Pandora Papers more than 330 politicians and public officials from more than 90 countries and territories, included 35 current and former country leaders. The issues highlighted by the new revelation were jurisdictions not explored in previous ICIJ projects or for which there was little data, such as Belize, Cyprus and South Dakota. The legal entities in the files of six providers; the companies, foundations and trusts were all registered between 1971 and 2018. The records show providers and clients shifting their business from one jurisdiction to another after investigations and resulting rule changes.
While owning an offshore company is not outright illegal, the secrecy it provides can give cover to illicit money flows, enabling bribery, money laundering, tax evasion, terrorism financing, human trafficking and other human rights abuses. Impoverished nations are disproportionately harmed by the stashing of wealth in tax haven, which starves treasuries of funds to pay for roads, schools and hospitals. The Pandora Papers probe revealed that international leaders who could tackle offshore tax avoidance have themselves secretly moved money and assets beyond the reach of tax and law enforcement authorities as their citizens toil endlessly. Current and former leaders who have owned secret companies and trusts, as revealed by the Pandora Papers investigation, include King Abdullah II of Jordan, the prime ministers of Côte d’Ivoire and the Czech Republic, the presidents of Ecuador, Kenya and Gabon and the former presidents of El Salvador, Panama, Paraguay and Honduras. The Pandora Papers offered fresh insights into international corruption scandals, including the far-reaching bribery operation of Brazilian contracting giant Odebrecht S.A., the international soccer scandal known as FIFAGate and the alleged looting of Venezuelan public assets. The files also shed light on the financial dealings of Chavistas in Venezuela, fugitive cult leaders and their followers, kleptocrats and their families, neo-Nazis, a mineral water dealer convicted of soliciting the murders of a judge and a prosecutor, a fugitive millionaire pedophile and terrorism financiers. The disclosures were far-reaching and multi-dimensional. The reporting also narrowed on how the United States, in particular, has become an increasingly attractive destination for hidden wealth, although the United States and its Western allies condemn smaller countries for allowing the flow of money and assets tied to corruption and crime.
Nigeria; the largest black nation in the world and biggest economy in Africa, has an uncanny habit of appearing in any event of global reckoning such as this, and it would have been a source of great astonishment if the famous green-white-green nation has no sizable contingent in this scandal of huge proportion. A country that is home to the largest number of people in the world, and where the majority of the people is stricken by abject poverty, is also home to a few others who have stupendously enriched themselves mostly through unconscionable and criminal means. Having a tainted reputation of weak institutions, deficient structures and the ignominy of possessing some of the world’s most reckless and pervasive corrupt leaders across board; it was not surprising to hear names of past and present famous Nigerians at the core of this infamous odium.
The usual suspects did not fail to be part of the roll call, with politicians taking the centre-stage in the Pandora exposé which also featured a few business, religious and traditional leaders. There was no chance for the usual political cross-accusations or ethnic colorations as all major political parties and ethnic tribes were well represented. It instructively underscored once again; that only the maltreated, misgoverned and misruled Nigerians allow themselves to be turned against each other by the political class who forge a common cord and strike a unity of purpose in siphoning the commonwealth regardless of creed, ethnicity and political leanings, while the rest of the population are perennially at each other’s throat; living in unending mutual suspicion and mistrust.
Former Senate President Bukola Saraki and his wife, Toyin, were named alongside Senator David Mark, who preceded Saraki in office. Former Bayelsa Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and his Delta State counterpart, James Ibori, were also there. The landmark investigations also showed the existence of a network of shell companies in offshore tax havens linked to Aliko Dangote and his brother, Sayyu Dantata. Some offshore companies were linked to Wale Tinubu, the Chief Executive Officer of Oando Plc. The late Prophet Temitope Joshua of the Synagogue Church of all Nations was a member of the club, likewise the presiding Bishop of the Winners Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo. General T.Y. Danjuma, Globacom’s Mike Adenuga, Niger State governor, Abubakar Sadiq Sani Bello, Arik Air chairman, Joseph Arumemi-Johnson and his wife, Mary. Former bank chairman, Hakeem Bello Osagie and the late Ooni of Ife, Okunade Sijuade, are among those identified in the well-researched exposé. The list also included a former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi; ex-Aviation minister and serving Senator, Stella Oduah; the acting managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Mohammed Bello-Koko; Governors Dapo Abiodun, Gboyega Oyetola and Atiku Bagudu of Ogun, Osun and Kebbi states, respectively. While some have ignored the report or yet to react, many have elicited disclaimers, declaring their pristine innocence. Others in the fold, too, have offered lengthy and sophisticated explanations to discredit the report as being non-factual, while also exonerating themselves and denying any law-breaking deed or act of moral wrongdoing. For example, Peter Obi, has emphatically declared his innocence on all counts of secretly having offshore investments and not declaring all the assets belonging to him and his immediate family members before assuming office as the Anambra State governor, with a claim that he resigned and took a break from his private enterprises while was he was in public office. Mohammed Bello-Koko, on his part, said that he opened the offshore accounts and companies before he took public office as the Executive Director and later the Acting Managing Director in the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). He further claimed that his company took loans to fund most of the assets at the time of the investment, and therefore committed no infraction of the law, according to him. Governor Oyetola similarly declared that he has no connection to some London properties being linked to him, and therefore did not break any law as a political office-holder, having resigned his directorship of the corporations linked to him when he was first appointed as the Chief of Staff to the immediate past governor of Osun State in 2011.
According to Transparency International (TI), Nigeria accounts for 35 per cent of Africa’s illicit financial outflows, estimated at between $15 billion and $18 billion annually. What could be achieved by investing such whopping sum of money in the country is only within the realm of imagination. TI has advocated that Nigeria should strengthen its weak institutions and engender a culture of transparency to secure its enormous wealth.
The exposé, no matter how meticulous it appears cannot be fully absorbed at face value; it is definitely debatable and subject to further scrutiny when broken down into pieces. What the ICIJ has done is to throw open the hunting expedition; and so it is left for each country to adopt internal means of doing its domestic hunt vis-à-vis due diligence and rigorous fact-finding towards determining if the individuals named are guilty of any law-breaking. That some politicians have investments in secret companies, with assets in real estate and cash in secret accounts does not mean they have committed a crime unless proven guilty by a competent court of law. Some Nigerian politicians were successful private sector leaders, businessmen and entrepreneurs long before they joined politics, and so they may have acquired many assets, and therefore must not be totally demonised because of this revelations by the Pandora Papers unless they did not make honest declaration of their true assets before taking an oath of office. Therefore, there is the need to properly investigate individuals involved in this scandal in order to ascertain the actual position of things. And if those mentioned in the Pandora Papers are found guilty of any infractions against the law, they must be prosecuted and punished no matter their political status or standing in the society. Also, those who committed no unlawful act should also be publicly exonerated with requisite proof of innocence. The suggested violations to be checked include the sources of the funds for the businesses and assets to ascertain whether they are legitimate, and that they were not proceeds of crime and corruption. The second aspect for politically exposed people is determining whether they declared such assets and funds in the mandatory assets declaration forms for public office-holders.
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The initial response of the Presidency as contained in a statement by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, was that the President will officially comment on the development soon. But Shehu further disclosed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ministry of Justice, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, and the Code of Conduct Bureau are primarily responsible for the matter and will advise the President on the next line of action to be taken.
Also in a related development, the former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, who was among those named in the Pandora scandal was the first to be invited for questioning by the EFCC with regards to the issue. It was the first known action by any Nigerian law enforcement agency since the reports on Nigerians who were involved in the offshore shenanigans was made public through the global Pandora Papers investigation. A spokesperson at the anti-graft agency said the Pandora Papers revelations only served as a lead for investigators and that a number of issues were being investigated regarding Peter Obi and his offshore dealings. The source further said the anti-graft agency’s investigations which would be a gradual and thorough process would be extended to all persons linked to the Pandora Papers.
But because of the political and tribal leanings of the first invitee that was called in to explain himself in order to establish his innocence or otherwise, premature allegations are already festering in some quarters that the whole process may be turned into an opportunistic and indirect witch-hunt that will focus on pre-selected targets and paper over the cracks of others. For any meaningful success to be recorded in this investigation; the need for the EFCC and every other law agency involved to comport themselves in highly professional manner and conduct cannot be over-emphasied. That Obi was the first to be invited for explanation should not be given any negative interpretation as long as others will be invited too; it is one at a time. Nigerians strongly believe that same invitation will be extended to everyone on the list and equal treatment will be noticeably upheld in this process of dispensing justice. It is being reported that Mohammed Bello-Koko and Stela Oduah are next in line, after which the others will follow.
It will also be recalled that majority of the Nigerians named in this Pandora Papers exposé were similarly named in the 2016 Panama Papers scandal which yielded no meaningful result in terms of conclusive investigations to establish proof of guilt or innocence. It is vital that the action of the EFCC on this Pandora scandal should be purpose-driven, aimed at giving the matter a reasonable closure after full scrutiny and investigations. It must not be the initial alacrity to gain media sensation usually replaced by eventual non-chalance and sidelining of matters typical of Nigeria’s anti-graft authorities on such issues.