A ‘leak’ containing nearly 3 terabytes of information has caused furor around the world as it reveals how rich people launder money out of the reach of the government and tax collectors. At least eleven million documents containing 40 years worth of information obtained secretly from one of the world’s most secretive law firms, Mossack Fonseca, based in Panama City, show how the firm has helped clients dodge sanctions and evade taxes by helping to hide money in tax havens and non-extraditable countries. The leak was gotten anonymously by the German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Fonseca’s clients include Mexican drug lords, terrorist organisations, Arabian kings, celebrities, sports stars, Mafia members and even rich divorcees. The leak has been coined “Panama papers” and is said to be greater than the famous wikileaks of 2012. Some high profile names from around the world have been implicated in the information leak and there are now calls for their arrest. Already, tax authorities in Australia and New Zealand have begun investigations into their citizens mentioned in the document. Public officials from some of Africa’s biggest and most corrupt nations were not left out. South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Egypt all had good representation in the information leak as well.
King Salman Bin Abdul Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud
Recently crowned as Saudi Arabia’s king, King Salman has been implicated in a scandal involving the mortgage of an array of homes worth $36 million in central London using a company in a non-extraditable country, the British Virgin Islands. His son, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, has been implicated in the scandal as well. In 2007, Swiss Bank UBS opened offshore companies in order to open bank accounts for the Saudi prince. These damning pieces of information are set to make Saudi allies rethink their position and shatter illusions about religious leaders in the state.
Childhood friends of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin
Sergey Roldugin, a Russian musician, is a close friend of Vladimir Putin, having introduced the president to his wife and being the godfather to his daughter, Mariya Putin. It appears that being friends of the president also has its own perks. His three offshore companies received advantageous loans from a bank called “Russia’s personal bank for senior officials” with the influence of the president. Some of the bank loans are “hidden” in a sky resort where another of Putin’s daughters, Katerian got married in 2013. Another set of Putin’s friends, billionaire brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg were also mentioned in the leak.
Former Nigerian Delta state Governor, James Ibori
The law firm, Mossack Fonseca, was the registered holder of four offshore companies registered to James Ibori and his family members, before his arrest by UK authorities in 2012, where he pleaded guilty in court for laundering and fraud charges. He is expected to be out soon and is set to answer for some crimes in his home country, Nigeria.
South African president Jacob Zuma’s nephew
South Africa’s most controversial president in history, Jacob Zuma, is not left out of the scam either. His nephew, Clive Khulubuse Zuma was accused of “questionable oil field deals” when he acquired some in the Democratic Republic of Congo amidst controversy, in 2010, using Mossack Fonseca. In 2015, he was also held responsible as Chairman for the folding up of a Gold mining company in South Africa that resulted in the loss of 5000 jobs. It appears that incompetence runs in the Zuma veins.
Deputy chief justice of Kenya’s Supreme Court
Kalpana Rawal is presently fighting a war with Kenya’s justice system which tried to force her to retire when she turned 70 in January, 2016. The Panama Papers show her as the director of two companies in the British Virgin Islands. She and her husband used offshore companies to buy and sell almost 10 million dollars worth of London real estate as well. Retirement may be the least of her problems now.
Son of Kofi Annan, former UN secretary general
Son of former Secretary general of the United nations, Kojo Annan, was also implicated in the information leak. Kojo used a Samoan company to buy an apartment in London worth 500,000 dollars in 2003. He is also the director of two companies in the British Virgin Islands. Both Samoa and the British Virgin Islands are non-extraditable. It looks like the son is surely not following on the footsteps of his father.
Angola’s minister of petroleum
Forget Angola’s despot, Jose Eduardo Santos, as his appointments appear to be learning from him. Angola’s oil minister, José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, is accused of owning offshore companies in Samoa and also inflating their worth. His crimes stretch back to his first stint as minister for petroleum and as the OPEC president.
Other high profile names include the son of the former Egyptian president, Hossni Mubarak, son of former Ghanaian president John Kuffour, father of the UK Prime Minister David Cameron, legendary footballer Lionel Messi and former FIFA president Michel Platini.
Soon, people will ask why journalists in the countries of these people stayed silent, or how the ICIJ really got its hands on the Panama Papers all of a sudden, but for now the world is content with this victory. Like that Yoruba proverb goes, “Everyday is for the thief, and one day is for the owner.” It sure looks like that day has come.
