Panama Papers opens Tinubu & Saraki files

The Panama Papers scandal will deepen around the world today when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists puts most of the digital cache of documents online, accessible to all.

The ICIJ said it will release the documents in a searchable database at 1800 GMT on Monday accessible to the public at offshoreleaks.icij.org.

The US-based organization said the release “will not be a ‘data dump’” of the sort the Wikileaks group became known for. But it will reveal names and information on 200,000 offshore entities set up by wealthy individuals around the world.

The documents are from 2.6 terabytes of data given to a German newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, over a year ago by an anonymous source using the name “John Doe.”

The data came from nearly four decades of digital archives of one Panamanian law firm specialized in creating and running offshore entities, Mossack Fonseca, which says its computer records were hacked from abroad.

The German newspaper gave access to the trove to the ICIJ, and through it to hundreds of journalists in different countries.

Reports thus far have focused on scores of high-profile individuals: political leaders, celebrities and a few criminals.

– Iceland’s prime minister was forced to resign when his name was linked to an offshore company.

– British Prime Minister David Cameron ended up admitting he profited from an offshore firm started by his father.

– Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest circle was named in the revelations, prompting Putin to claim the Panama Papers was a US plot against him.

– Argentine President Mauricio Macri was also linked to offshore companies.

– China censored media and online social networks from mentioning links between the families of Chinese leaders with offshore entities.

Other notable people made uncomfortable by the documents include Argentine football star Lionel Messi, Hong Kong film star Jackie Chan and Spanish movie director Pedro Almodovar. In Nigeria, Senate President Bukola Saraki, his wife, Toyin, Lt. General TO Danjuma, Oando chief, Wale Tinubu, Folorunso Coker, a tourism commissioner in Lagos were among the people named as salting hidden assets away in Panama, Seychelles and British Virgin Islands.

Mossack Fonseca on Thursday issued a “cease and desist” letter to the US-based ICIJ, saying putting up the information publicly would violate attorney-client privilege.

– ‘Should be public’ –

But there is no sign of the ICIJ calling off the online database. The organization says it is important the public be able to look at information on any offshore company in the Panama Papers.

“We think that information about who owns the company should be public and transparent,” Marina Walker Guevara, deputy director of the ICIJ, told CNN.

She stressed, however, that “this is not disclosing private information en masse.”

Since reporting on the Panama Papers started at the beginning of April, Panama’s government has been struggling to persuade the world that it is not a haven for tax-dodgers and money launderers.

France has already put the Central American nation on its blacklist of tax havens, and other Western countries are considering following suit. The online release of more Panama Papers could deepen the damage to Panama’s image.

“We’re very concerned that the country’s reputation will be affected by this situation,” the minister for government, Milton Henriquez, told TVN-2 television.

Panama’s pushback against being singled out as a facilitator of offshore business was further complicated just days ago when the United States declared members of one of country’s most prominent business families, the Wakeds, among the top global money launderers for ruthless drug cartels.

The US blacklisted many of the Waked’s 68 companies in Panama, whose interests span a bank, an upmarket shopping center, duty free outlets and media. One of the suspects, Nidal Ahmed Waked Hatum, was arrested in Colombia and is awaiting extradition to the United States to face charges.

On Sunday, Panama’s Chamber of Commerce for Industry and Agriculture acknowledged that the scandals were “rocking the country.”

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#Panamapapers: Police raid law firm

Police on Tuesday raided the headquarters of the Panamanian law firm whose leaked Panama Papers revealed how the world’s wealthy and powerful used offshore companies to stash assets.

Police with an organised crime unit carried out the raid at Mossack Fonseca “with no incident or interference,” prosecutors said in a statement, adding that searches would take place at the firm’s Panama City headquarters and its branches.

The Panama Papers, centered on a huge cache of documents pilfered digitally from the Mossack Fonseca, has had repercussions around the world. Iceland’s prime minister was forced to resign after his name appeared as one of the beneficiaries of an offshore company. Britain’s prime minister has had to disclose his tax records.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to divert attention from his entourage by claiming it is all a United States plot against him. China has been censoring online forums and media to try to prevent the names of relatives close to the leadership from circulating.

And wealthy citizens in Australia, France, India, Mexico, Peru, Spain and elsewhere face probes over suspected tax avoidance after their names figured in some of the 11.5 million documents.

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s image has taken a beating from the delay in revealing that he held shares in his late father’s offshore fund and received money from his parents that may have skirted inheritance tax.

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Full list of people indicted in Panama papers includes Ibori, Saudi King, Messi & more

In early 2015, an anonymous source using the pseudonym “John Doe” made the massive documents, now known as Panama Papers, available in batches to German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung. The information documents transactions as far back as the 1970s and eventually totaled 2.6 terabytes of data.

The newspaper, according to Wikipedia, enlisted the help of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which distributed the documents for investigation and analysis to some 400 journalists at 107 media organizations in 76 countries.

The first news reports based on the papers, and 149 of the documents themselves, were published on April 3, 2016 and the ICIJ plans to publish a full list of companies involved in early May 2016.

The Panama Papers are a leaked set of 11.5 million confidential documents that provide detailed information about more than 214,000 offshore companies listed by the Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, including the identities of shareholders and directors of the companies.

Panama papers show how wealthy individuals, including public officials, hid their assets from public scrutiny. The British Virgin Islands was home to half of the companies exposed and Hong Kong contained the most affiliated banks, law firms and middlemen.

On Tuesday, Voicehindi.com, published a complete list of people named in Panama papers.

The full list is reproduced below:

Heads of State:
Argentina Mauricio Macri, President of Argentina
Saudi Arabia Salman, King of Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Abu Dhabi
Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine

Former heads of state
Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, former Emir of Qatar
Sudan Ahmed al-Mirghani, former President of Sudan
Heads of government
Iceland Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Prime Minister of Iceland (resigned April 5, 2016)

Former heads of government
Georgia (country) Bidzina Ivanishvili, former Prime Minister of Georgia
Iraq Ayad Allawi, former Acting Prime Minister of Iraq
Jordan Ali Abu al-Ragheb, former Prime Minister of Jordan
Qatar Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, former Prime Minister of Qatar
Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko, former Prime Minister of Ukraine
Moldova Ion Sturza, former Prime Minister of Moldova

Other government officials
Algeria -Abdeslam Bouchouareb, Minister of Industry and Mines
Andorra -Jordi Cinca, Minister of Finance
Angola -José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, Minister of Petroleum
Argentina – Néstor Grindetti, Mayor of Lanús
Botswana- Ian Kirby, President of the Botswana Court of Appeal and former Attorney General
Brazil – Joaquim Barbosa, former President of the Supreme Federal Court,Eduardo Cunha, President of the Chamber of Deputies,Edison Lobão, Member of the Senate and former Minister of Mines and Energy,João Lyra, Member of the Chamber of Deputies
Cambodia – Ang Vong Vathana, Minister of Justice
Chile -Alfredo Ovalle Rodríguez, intelligence agency associate
Democratic Republic of the Congo,,Jaynet Kabila, Member of the National Assembly
Republic of the Congo – Bruno Itoua, Minister of Scientific Research and Technical Innovation and former Chairman of the SNPC
Ecuador – Galo Chiriboga, current Attorney General,Pedro Delgado, cousin of President of Ecuador Rafael Correa, and former Governor of the Central Bank
France – Patrick Balkany, Member of the National Assembly and Mayor of Levallois-Perret,Jérôme Cahuzac, former Minister of the Budget,Jean-Marie Le Pen, former president of the National Front and father of current party leader Marine Le Pen
Greece – Stavros Papastavrou, advisor of former Prime Ministers Kostas Karamanlis and Antonis Samaras
Hungary – Zsolt Horváth, former Member of the National Assembly
Iceland -Bjarni Benediktsson, Minister of Finance,Júlíus Vífill Ingvarsson, Member of Reykjavík City Council (resigned April 5, 2016),Ólöf Nordal, Minister of the Interior
India -Anurag Kejriwal, former President of the Lok Satta Party Delhi Branch, Anil Vasudeva Salgaocar, A Goa-based mining baron and former MLA
Kenya -Kalpana Rawal, Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Malta -Konrad Mizzi, Minister of Energy and Health
Nigeria -James Ibori, former Governor of Delta State
North Korea -Kim Chol Sam, Daedong Credit Bank representative based in Dalian and presumed high official
Palestine -Mohammad Mustafa, former Minister of National Economy
Panama – Riccardo Francolini, former chairman of the state-owned Savings Bank
Peru -César Almeyda, Director of the National Intelligence Service
Poland -Paweł Piskorski, former Mayor of Warsaw
Rwanda -Emmanuel Ndahiro, brigadier general and former chief of the intelligence agency
Saudi Arabia -Muhammad bin Nayef, Crown Prince and Minister of the Interior of Saudi Arabia
Sweden -Frank Belfrage, former State Secretary for Foreign Affairs
United Kingdom -Michael Ashcroft, retired member of the House of Lords,Tony Baldry, former Conservative MP for Banbury,Michael Mates, former Conservative MP for East Hampshire,Pamela Sharples, Member of the House of Lords
Venezuela -Victor Cruz Weffer, former commander-in-chief of the army,Jesús Villanueva, former Director of PDVSA
Zambia -Atan Shansonga, former Ambassador to the United States

Relatives and associates of government officials
Argentina – Daniel Muñoz, aide to former presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Néstor Kirchner
Azerbaijan – Mehriban Aliyeva, Leyla Aliyeva, Arzu Aliyeva, Heydar Aliyev and Sevil Aliyeva, family of President Ilham Aliyev
Brazil -Idalécio de Castro Rodrigues de Oliveira, potential briber of the Brazilian President of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha and a Portuguese entrepeneur
Canada -Anthony Merchant, husband of Senator Pana Merchant.
China -Patrick Henri Devillers, French business associate of Gu Kailai, convicted murderer and wife of former Minister of Commerce and Member of the Politburo Bo Xilai,Deng Jiagui, brother-in-law of President Xi Jinping,Jasmine Li, granddaughter of former Member of the Politburo Jia Qinglin,Li Xiaolin, daughter of former Premier Li Peng
Ecuador -Javier Molina Bonilla, former advisor to Director of the National Intelligence Secretariat Rommy Vallejo
Egypt -Alaa Mubarak, son of former President Hosni Mubarak
France -Frédéric Chatillon, business associate of Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front,Arnaud Claude, former law partner of former President Nicolas Sarkozy,Nicolas Crochet, accounting associate of Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front
Ghana – John Addo Kufuor, son of former President John Kufuor
Guinea- Mamadie Touré, widow of former President Lansana Conté
Honduras -César Rosenthal, son of former Vice President Jaime Rosenthal
Ireland -Frank Flannery, political consultant and Fine Gael’s former Director of Organisations and Strategy
Italy -Giuseppe Donaldo Nicosia, convicted of bribery alongside former Senator Marcello Dell’Utri
India -Jehangir Soli Sorabjee, son of former attorney general Soli Sorabjee and a honorary consultant physician at Bombay Hospital,Harish Salve, India’s leading lawyers and son of N. K. P. Salve, member of the Indian National Congress party,Rajendra Patil, son-in-law of veteran Congressman and Karnataka Horticulture Minister Shamanuru Shivashankarappa and a businessman
Ivory Coast -Jean-Claude N’Da Ametchi, associate of former President Laurent Gbagbo
Kazakhstan -Nurali Aliyev, grandson of President Nursultan Nazarbayev
Malaysia -Mohd Nazifuddin Najib, son of Prime Minister Najib Razak and his cousin
Mexico -Juan Armando Hinojosa, “favourite contractor” of President Enrique Peña Nieto
Morocco -Mounir Majidi, personal secretary of King Mohammed VI
Pakistan -Maryam Nawaz, Hasan Nawaz Sharif and Hussain Nawaz Sharif, children of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
Russia -Sergei Roldugin, Arkady Rotenberg and Boris Rotenberg, friends of President Vladimir Putin
Senegal -Mamadou Pouye, friend of Karim Wade, himself the son of former President Abdoulaye Wade
South Africa – Khulubuse Zuma, nephew of President Jacob Zuma
South Korea -Ro Jae-Hun, son of former President Roh Tae-woo
Spain -Pilar de Borbón, sister of former King Juan Carlos I,Micaela Domecq Solís-Beaumont, wife of Miguel Arias Cañete, European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy and former Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment,Oleguer Pujol, son of Jordi Pujol i Soley, former President of Catalonia
Syria- Rami and Hafez Makhlouf, cousins of President Bashar al-Assad
United Kingdom -Ian Cameron, father of Prime Minister David Cameron
United Nations -Kojo Annan, son of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan

Sports personalities
Juan Pedro Damiani, Uruguayan member of the FIFA Ethics Committee
Eugenio Figueredo, Uruguayan American former president of CONMEBOL and vice president and member of the ethics committee of FIFA
Gianni Infantino, Swiss-Italian president of FIFA
Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, Argentine businessmen also implicated in the 2015 FIFA corruption case
Michel Platini, French former president of UEFA
Jérôme Valcke, French former secretary general of FIFA
Mattias Asper, Valeri Karpin, Nihat Kahveci, Tayfun Korkut, Darko Kovačević, Gabriel Schürrer and Sander Westerveld had accounts created by Real Sociedad and its president(s) principally Iñaki Otegui, under the leadership of José Luis Astiazarán, Miguel Fuentes, María de la Peña, Juan Larzábal and Iñaki Badiola
Gabriel Heinze, Argentine former footballer, account (with his mother) during Manchester United years
Lionel Messi, footballer for Barcelona and the Argentine national team
Brian Steen Nielsen, Danish former footballer and sports director of Aarhus Gymnastikforening
Marc Rieper, Danish retired footballer
Clarence Seedorf, Dutch former footballer
Leonardo Ulloa, Argentine footballer
Iván Zamorano, Chilean retired footballer, account during Real Madrid years
Àlex Crivillé, Spanish former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer
Nico Rosberg, German Formula 1 driver at Mercedes AMG Petronas
Jarno Trulli, Italian former Formula 1 driver
Tomas Berdych, Czech professional tennis player on the ATP World Tour, currently ranked world number seven
Nick Faldo, English professional golfer on the PGA European Tour, now mainly an on-air golf analyst

Entertainment personalities
Agustín Almodóvar, Spanish film producer and younger brother of filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar, Spanish film director, screenwriter, producer and former actor
Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Indian actress and former Miss World.
Jackie Chan, Hong Kong actor
Franco Dragone, Italian Belgian theatre director, known for his work for Cirque du Soleil
David Geffen, Hollywood mogul, co-founder of DreamWorks
Vinod Adani, Indian businessman, elder brother of Gautam Adani, Adani Group
Bank Leumi’s representatives and board members.
Hollman Carranza, son of Colombian emerald mogul Víctor Carranza
Rattan Chadha, Indian-born Dutch businessman, founder of Mexx clothing
Jacob Engel, Israeli businessman active in the African mining industry.
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Italian businessman and politician
Anthony Gumbiner, British businessman, chairman of Hallman Group
Solomon Humes, Bahamian bishop of a small denomination
Soulieman Marouf, British Syrian businessman Nakash family members
Idan Ofer, London-based Israeli business magnate and philanthropist, founder of Tanker Pacific.
Igor Olenicoff, American billionaire
Marianna Olszewski, American financial author and life coach.
K P Singh, Indian businessman
Frank Timiș, Romanian-born Australian businessman
Dov Weissglass, Israeli lawyer and business man who has been closely linked with the Middle East peace process, particularly under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Teddy Sagi, a London-based Israeli billionaire businessman founder of Playtech and the majority shareholder of Market Tech Holdings, which owns London’s Camden Market, and of two AIM-listed technology companies.
Jacob Weinroth, an Israeli attorney, founder partner of Dr. J. Weinroth & Co. Law Office and owner and director of Sapir Holdings.
Benjamin Wey, Chinese American financier and president of New York Global Group Main shareholders of Anheuser-Busch InBev
Mallika Srinivasan,Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TAFE – Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited and Indira Sivasailam (died in December 2008)
Abdul Rashid Mir, founder and CEO of Cottage Industries Exposition Limited (CIE) & Tabasum Mir
Zavaray Poonawalla, Brother of billionaire Cyrus S. Poonawalla and heads the managing committee of Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC)
Mohan Lal Lohia, Father of Sri Prakash Lohia, founder and chairman of Indorama Corporation
Onkar Kanwar, Chairman & MD of Apollo Tyres
Garware family, family of Abasaheb Garware, was a pioneering industrialist from Maharashtra state in India
Shishir K Bajoria, promoter of SK Bajoria Group, which has steel refractory units
Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Others
Marllory Chacón Rossell, Guatemalan drug trafficker.
Jorge Milton Cifuentes-Villa, Colombian drug trafficker, head of the Cifuentes-Villa Drug Trafficking Organization and partner of Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán.
Rafael Caro Quintero, Mexican drug trafficker and one of the founders of the now-disintegrated Guadalajara Cartel.
Iqbal Mirchi[73] (died 14 August 2013), right-hand man of India’s most wanted criminal, Dawood Ibrahim
Gonzalo Delaveu, head of global corruption watchdog Transparency International’s Chile branch (resigned 4 April 2016)

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T.B Joshua denies owning any company in Panama

Popular Lagos based pastor of The Synagogue Church of all Nation, T.B Joshua has denied media reports that the recently released Panama reports indicted him as one of the few Nigerians that operate a company in Panama. 

Just, yesterday, Premium Times broke the news on their website that Joshua and his wife, Evelyn, owned Chillon Consultancy Limited, a company incorporated on June 20, 2006 at the British Virgin Island.

In a statement posted on his Facebook wall, T.B Joshua denied the claims and exposed Premium Times. Read it below......

I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PANAMA PAPERS – TB JOSHUA This is an official statement from Prophet T.B. Joshua:

“I was shocked to find a report written in Premium Times (www.premiumtimesng.com) claiming that the Panama Papers revealed a shell company called Chillon Consultancy Limited in the British Virgin Islands, allegedly owned by me. Whoever is involved in this malicious write-up and propaganda with an obvious intent to defame my person and the ministry, remember what the Bible says in Luke 2:34 – “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many… and to be a sign that will be spoken against.” 

“I am not a businessman and have no business whatsoever. What God has given me is more than enough. I have nothing to do with the Panama Papers. As for me and my family, we shall remain in the vineyard of God. “Premium Times – do not allow your company to be used. Do not allow your company to stand against God. This is a lie! 

Take note – this news was written by the same journalist who alleged that I bribed him during the building incident and went to different channels – both local and international – to propagate these fabrications. Since the building incident, there have been a series of threats towards the ministry and my person by this same journalist, Nicholas Ibekwe, who represents a gang of people. 

“After everything that has been done in an attempt to destroy this ministry, this is what he has resorted to. Even the picture used in the write-up is taken from the Mexico Crusade I recently held. It was a crusade I went for, nothing more. 

“Do not use the Panama Papers to attack those you have been looking for an opportunity to victimise. This is to show that not everybody alleged in the media to be involved in the Panama Papers is truly involved. My own case is a good example. “Beware of those using the Panama Papers for fraudulent purposes! This is a very big mistake the fraudsters have made. Those who read this report – take time to do your findings. It is malicious.” 

"Note – people are misusing the data in the Panama Papers for fraud to attack innocent people." Attached is the picture of Nicholas Ibekwe and one of the many emails he has sent to The SCOAN.

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