Panama Papers go online, Tinubu & Saraki files thrown open

The Mossack Fonseca law firm offices in Panama City

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.”

Senator Bukola Saraki: Panama files now open to the world

– Data from ‘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.

wale Tinubu: Mossack Fonseca files posted online

– 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, Wales 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.”

senate-forgery-agf-orders-dpp-try-suspects

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, has given the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation and the police a two-week ultimatum  to prefer charges against suspects, who allegedly forged the Senate Standing Orders used for the proclamation of the current 8th Senate, The PUNCH has learnt.

The Senate Standing Orders 2015, alleged to be a forged version of the 2011 version, was used for the leadership election of the Senate, which produced Dr. Bukola Saraki as the Senate President and Ike Ekweremadu as his deputy, shortly after the 8th Senate was proclaimed on June 9, 2015.

Top sources in the Federal Ministry of Justice and the police headquarters confirmed that Malami had given the police and the DPP of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Diri, two weeks to file charges against the suspected forgers.

It was learnt that Malami called for the file on the case last week and found out that the ministry had since July 29, 2015, some months before his appointment, recommended the prosecution of the yet-to-be-identified suspects.

The minister was also said to have discovered in the file that the ministry had requested the police to further investigate the case in order to unravel the suspects and the roles played by them in the case.

The sources confirmed that the suspects would be charged with criminal conspiracy, forgery, breach of official trust and unlawful assembly said to have contravened various provisions of Penal Code in about one or two weeks.

This confirmed The PUNCH’s exclusive story published on April 4, 2016, that the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, had, on July 29, 2015, issued a legal advice for the prosecution of the suspects after considering the report of investigation submitted to him by the police.

The PUNCH had reported that the legal advice, addressed to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department of the Force Headquarters, Dan’Azumi Doma, was received by the recipient’s office on July 29, 2015, the same date it was issued by the DPPF.

The document showed that it was issued in response to the report of police investigation, with reference number CB: 3514/XFQ/ABJ/Vol./23/17, which was sent to the Ministry of Justice by Doma, quoting the number given to the case by the police as FHQ/X/ABJ/SEB/365/2015.

The legal advice as reported by The PUNCH had sought further police investigation to unravel who played what roles in the forgery case in order to identify who to prosecute for flouting the various provisions of the Penal Code.

“When the minister saw all these in the file, he had to call on the officers in charge of the case and asked them to liaise with the police and come up with the charges within two weeks,” the source said.

One of the sources said the minister was patiently taking his time to take decision on the case because “he is aware that there are a lot of vested interests that are out to frustrate the case.”

The source added, “But I can assure you, in one or two weeks’ time, the minister’s decision on the case is going to be made known to the public and you will be impressed.”

Our correspondent had sighted the legal advice issued by the Federal Ministry of Justice with reference number, DPPA/ADV/258/15,  recommending that some suspects, whom the police refused to name in their investigative report, should be prosecuted.

The legal opinion, which analysed the evidence thrown up by the police investigation, had indicated that the “leadership election, based on the forged document, cannot stand and it is null and void”.

The legal advice added, “Further investigation should reveal:

“Who authorised the promulgation of the Senate Standing Order 2015?

“Who published the Senate Standing Order 2015?

“Who approved the Senate Standing Order 2015?

“Who paid for the publishing of the Senate Standing Order 2015? and

“Who distributed the Senate Standing Order 2015?”

In addition, the legal advice recommended the yet-to-be-identified suspects to be prosecuted “for criminal conspiracy, contrary to provision of Section 97 of the Penal Code; forgery, contrary to Section 99 of Penal Code; breach of official trust and unlawful assembly contrary to Section 102 of the Penal Code.”

The legal advice also recommended that the various versions of the Senate Standing Orders since 1999 should be collected as part of evidence needed for the prosecution of the case.

When contacted on Sunday, Malami’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Salihu Isah, said he had no information on the case and requested to be given time to find out.

“I have not received any briefing on it. Give me some time to make inquiries about it,” Isah said.

 The Force Public Relations Officer, Bisi Kolawole, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, did not respond to calls put across to her mobile by our correspondent on Sunday.

The police had investigated the alleged forgery of the Senate Orders following a petition by Senator Sulaiman Hunkuyi of the All Progressives Congress from Kaduna State.

The petition had alleged that some parts of the 2015 Senate Order were different from the one ratified by the 6th Senate and was used by the 7th Senate, as Standing Orders 2011.

The police had, during their investigation on July 6, questioned some members of the 7th and the 8th Senate as well as some management employees of the Senate, including the Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa.

It was alleged that the 2011 version of the Senate Orders was secretly altered by some individuals to produce the 2015 edition.

The 13-page police report of the police investigation had confirmed that the amendment to the 2011 version of the Senate Standing Order to produce the 2015 edition was “criminally” done as it was carried out by only a group of senators.

The police report, however, failed to indict any particular person and also did not recommend anybody for prosecution.

Amaechi queries LADOL over gazette

Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has queried the management of LADOL Integrated Logistics FZE to explain how it came about a “purported’’ gazette which enabled the company to receive ships carrying oil and gas related cargoes.

A source close to the ministry said on Sunday that this was contained in the correspondence between LADOL and the Ministry of Transportation.

In the correspondence, the ministry recalled that at a meeting between the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi and maritime
stakeholders in March, LADOL presented a gazette, which the ministry said its authenticity was in doubt.

The ministry demanded that LADOL should furnish it with more information on how it came about the purported gazette No 54 , Volume 95 of Lagos, 4th Sept, 2008, which allowed it to receive a maximum of two-ocean going ships per week.

The minister had at a meeting held with maritime stakeholders in March told terminal operators to submit documents to show that there were no terminals dedicated to handle oil and gas cargoes.

The minister explained that one of the far-reaching decisions reached was that the most recent Presidential approval of April 20, 2015, be strictly complied with by all relevant maritime stakeholders.

According to the ministry, the presidential approval states that “the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) project can be located at Agge, Bayelsa State, when the facilities to handle such operations are developed.

“In addition, the FPSO can be conveniently located at any designated oil and gas terminal.

“All oil and gas related cargoes must be handled only at the designated terminals as in the letter from the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

“Operators are, however, free to choose port of discharge of their cargoes within the designated terminals at Onne, Warri and Calabar,’’ the ministry said.

It added that vessels coming to Nigeria, particularly oil and gas related cargoes, except petroleum products must first go to the appropriate NPA concessioned terminal operators and shipping lines.

The ministry said that the owners of the vessels must pay the necessary dues/charges and obtain releases before proceeding to locations for final discharge including those meant for LADOL.

It said that this was in order to maintain transparency and promote healthy competition in the sector.

The ministry added that all port development facilities associated with the development of any port facility including FPSO should be carried out in accordance with extant public procurement and infrastructure development laws and policies.

It warned that all maritime stakeholders should ensure strict compliance with the presidential approval.

Buhari to probe $16b power investment by Obj, Jonathan

Olusegun Obasanjo and Presidend Goodluck Jonathan

President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to investigate the $16 billion spent by the Olusegun Obasanjo and the Goodluck Jonathan administrations in the power over the years.

Despite the huge investment in the sector by the previous administrations, Nigerians are still grappling with poor power supply and most companies have closed down or relocated to other countries, due to non availability of electricity for production.

President Buhari made this known in an interview in Katsina monitored on radio and television.

While reiterating his administration’s desire to improve power supply in the country, President Buhari disclosed that he would look into the investment in the sector by previous administrations.

“It is a must for us to look into the investment in the power sector because nothing will work without adequate power supply in the country. The problem of the power sector is like that of the petroleum industry. We will look at how they spent the money because there is no power and nothing to show for the $16b investment by the previous administrations,” he said.

He assured Nigerians that he would do his best to turn around the fortunes of the country through the effective utilisation of available resources.

On the 2016 budget, the president said he would do his best to implement it.

“We will do our best to fix the country. When the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, asked me to sign the budget weeks ago and there were issues, I told him I won’t. But when he insisted, I told him if I assented to it and anything happened, he would be held responsible. He accepted and left. But when he had a second thought, he ran back to me and agreed with me that we shouldn’t sign it. It was at that point I heard of padding. The committees of the National Assembly removed our projects and replaced it with theirs.

“That’s was why we had three weeks to look at it. When he returned to me again, Udoma told me that most of the projects they (National Assembly) included had been removed but that we can go with the remaining ones since I must approve money before funds would be released for the execution of projects, “ he said.

On the recovery of stolen funds, he said all the stolen funds would be recovered and the perpetrators would not be spared.
He said adequate attention would be given to the agricultural sector in a renewed effort to diversify the country’s economy.
“We will work hard to restore the glory of the agricultural sector to ensure food security in the country.”

On the activities of the Niger Delta militants, he said they would be dealt with at the appropriate time. Quoting a slogan familiar with former Head of State, retired General Yakubu Gowon after the civil war, Buhari said, “To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be won.”

Panama Papers go online, Tinubu & Saraki files thrown open

The Mossack Fonseca law firm offices in Panama City

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.”

Senator Bukola Saraki: Panama files now open to the world

– Data from ‘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.

wale Tinubu: Mossack Fonseca files posted online

– 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, Wales 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.”