A massive leak of documents Monday exposed the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders and reveals how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies.
The leak also provides details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians and public officials around the world.
Representing Nigeria in the monumental array of crime and corruption is James Ibori, former governor of oil-rich Delta State from 1999 to 2007. Documents from the leak examined by SocietyGists late Monday night revealed that global banks team with law firms to help politicians, super rich and criminals hide their assets.
The cache of 11.5 million records shows how a global industry of law firms and big banks sells financial secrecy to politicians like Ibori, fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities and sports stars.
Ibori who pleaded guilty in a London court in 2012 to conspiracy to defraud and money laundering offenses, admitted using his position as governor to corruptly obtain and divert up to $75 million out of Nigeria through a network of offshore companies.
According to documents hacked from the offices of Mossack Fonseca in Panama millions of dollars were hidden by Ibori in Panama.
Mossack Fonseca was the registered agent of four offshore companies connected to James Ibori, including Julex Foundation, of which Ibori and family members were beneficiaries. Julex was the shareholder of Stanhope Investments, a company incorporated in Niue in 2003. Ibori was also connected to Financial Advisory Group Ltd. and Hunglevest Corporation, although Mossack Fonseca’s files do not specify the exact nature of his connection. In 2008, Mossack Fonseca received a request from the Seychelles government to produce documents as part of a probe by the Crown Prosecution Service, England’s principal prosecuting authority, of Ibori and alleged criminal activities. In 2012, Ibori pleaded guilty in a London court to laundering and fraud charges. During court hearings in the United Kingdom, prosecutors claimed that Ibori opened a Swiss bank account in the name of Stanhope Investments through which millions of dollars were later channeled to ultimately buy a $20 million private jet.
Anti corruption agencies in Nigeria alleged that the total amount Ibori embezzled may have exceeded $250 million. Ibori, who received a 13-year prison sentence, used millions of dollars to support a lavish lifestyle that included six houses in London and a fleet of Range Rovers, Bentleys and Mercedes.
The latest Panama files expose offshore companies controlled by the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan, the king of Saudi Arabia and the children of the president of Azerbaijan.
World leaders who have embraced anti-corruption platforms feature in the leaked documents. The files reveal offshore companies linked to the family of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, who has vowed to fight “armies of corruption,” as well as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who has positioned himself as a reformer in a country shaken by corruption scandals. The files also contain new details of offshore dealings by the late father of British Prime Minister David Cameron, a leader in the push for tax-haven reform.
Millions of documents show heads of state, criminals and celebrities using secret hideaways in tax havens, in what experts call the biggest leak of inside information in history – more than 11.5 million documents – and it is equally likely to be one of the most explosive in the nature of its revelations.
Below are some names in the leak
Bidzina Ivanishvili (former prime minister of Georgia)
Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud (current King of Saudi Arabia)
Ilham Aliyev’s (president of Azerbaijan) wife, children and sister
Li Xiaolin (daughter of former Chinese Premier Li Peng)
Ian Cameron (father of current British Prime Minister David Cameron)
Alaa Mubarak (son of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak)
Ang Vong Vathana (Cambodia’s minister of justice)
Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua (Congo’s minister of energy)
Carlos Gutiérrez Robayo (brother-in-law of Bogota’s mayor)