Senate President Bukola Saraki has been fingered in yet another list of leading World politicians who have firms in offshore tax haven.
The former Kwara State Governor’s name popped up in the global list of infamy exposing some leading world politicians for utilising shell companies in tax havens to either conceal assets, evade tax, or launder funds that surfaced on Sunday, November 5.
In the new findings by PREMIUM TIMES and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Mr. Saraki was found to sit on the board of an offshore entity while he was governor and later member of the Nigerian Senate in violation of his country’s code of conduct law.
Full List Of Prominent Nigerians Named In Panama Papers Leak
The politician set up Tenia Limited in the Cayman Islands —a notorious tax haven in the Caribbean— in 2001, and ran it until at least 2015 as director and sole shareholder. It remains unclear what business he transacted with the entity and what asset he might have used it to conceal.
But he failed to list the firm in his assets declaration filings when he was elected governor of Kwara in 2003, in defiance of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act. He also didn’t list the company when he was reelected governor in 2007 and when he was elected senator in 2011.
The latest details emerged from a leaked data obtained by German newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, and ICIJ from two offshore secrecy providers (Appleby and Asiaciti Trust) and 19 secrecy jurisdictions.
The leaked 1.4 terabyte data, now infamously dubbed Paradise Papers, contains 13.4 million records and is no doubt one of the biggest leaks in history.
For a year, more than 380 journalists from 96 media organisations in 67 countries pored over the gigantic data, which cover a period of nearly 70 years, from 1950 to 2016. PREMIUM TIMES is the only Nigerian media organization involved in the investigation.
More than 120 politicians and country leaders, in nearly 50 countries as well as hundreds of business people across the world were identified in the record as users of offshore entities.
The Paradise Papers revelations came 18 months after the PanamaPapers provoked worldwide outrage over the use of shell companies by the world’s political and business elite. There have also been debates about the ethics of using tax havens, where an estimated $32 trillion is believed held in offshore accounts, depriving their originating countries of tax revenues.
Tenia Ltd. was not amongst the hidden family assets of Mr. Saraki that were uncovered in the PanamaPapers, indicating that the Senate President is a serial user of offshore firms located in lenient tax hideouts across the world.
Andrew Stephenson of Discreet Law, a London-based law firm that represents Mr. Saraki, confirmed that the Senate President owned Tenia Ltd., but absolved him of any wrongdoing.
“There’s nothing unlawful in the ownership of offshore companies,” Mr. Stephenson said in response to an ICIJ enquiry, adding that the company had never been active since it was set up.
“We are instructed that Tenia Ltd. has never held any assets, nor has it ever traded or conducted any other business, nor does it have anything to do with the tribunal proceedings in Nigeria,” Mr. Stephenson said.
When asked why Saraki failed to declare the firm to the Code of Conduct Bureau in a follow-up e-mail, Mr. Stephenson said his client needed more time to respond.
The code of conduct law requires a public office holders to declare own assets, as well as those owned by their spouses and children below the age of 18.
In his 2003 declaration, Mr. Saraki listed European and American Trading Company, Tyberry Corporation, Eficaz Ltd., Gensoft, All Africa Media Company, Merrill HHB Fund, Mundernet Fund and Izorch Incorporated as the only eight companies he held substantial or ordinary stockholdings outside Nigeria.
He registered Tenia Ltd. in 2001 with 30 Saka Tinubu Street, Victoria Island, Lagos as base. The property on that address was investigated as part of Mr. Saraki’s assets declaration trial, but he said he only rented an office in the building.
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