The International Consortium of Investigative Journalist, ICIJ, has published in a searchable database the list of 214,000 entities that includes 21 floated entities by Nigerians, the names of 196 Nigerians behind the companies, 130 addresses and their 8 intermediaries.
The data, according to ICIJ, are part of the Panama Papers investigation that “strips away the secrecy of nearly 214,000 offshore entities created in 21 jurisdictions, from Nevada to Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands.”
Children of prominent Nigerians revered in the past are also linked to the various accounts. The ICIJ noted that the names published in the database may not necessarily be linked to crooked deals, however Nigerians who are conversant with some of the names and entities listed in the data say they are all questionable characters and companies.
Leymond Investment Limited, which was formed on 14 April 1994, is the oldest among the Nigerian companies listed. The company was created in the British Virgin Island, which is home to more than half of the Nigerian companies and individuals linked offshore to accounts.
Other Nigerian identified in the database include SHORECROFT INTERNATIONAL INC operating out of Panama, LEXYS LIMITED-Sep 2005-Seychelles, MULTINATIONAL ENERGY SERVICES LIMITED-2005-Seychelles, PUYEN INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LIMITED INC.-2003-Panama, HAKLAG INC. 09-JUN-1994-British Virgin Islands, LEYMOND INVESTMENTS LIMITED-14-APR-1994-British Virgin Islands, FIRESTORM LIMITED-25-MAR-2003-British Virgin Islands, WEBSITES CONSULTING MANAGEMENT LIMITED-24-JUN-2003-British Virgin Islands, TECHTONIC INTERNATIONAL LIMITED-30-MAY-2003-British Virgin Islands, GALWAY CAPITAL ASSETS LIMITED-07-DEC-2004-British Virgin Islands, SEAVIEW PROPERTY HOLDINGS LIMITED-09-JAN-2009-British Virgin Islands, Goldflow Group Limited-05-OCT-2009-British Virgin Islands, VIDIX DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED-21-MAY-2008-British Virgin Islands, MUK – B LIMITED 13-JAN-1992 Bahamas, MINDORA CORPORATION-18-AUG-1998-Bahamas, O.I.S. INTERNATIONAL LIMITED-20-FEB-2006-Bahamas, KENQUIP OVERSEAS LIMITED-20-FEB-2006-Bahamas, SMTM HOLDINGS INC.-16-JUL-1999-British Virgin Islands, SIGMA ES LIMITED, 25-MAR-2003, British Virgin Islands and ROAD GRIP (BAHAMAS) LIMITED-21-MAR-1996-Bahamas.
According to ICIJ, the data, part of the Panama Papers investigation, is the largest ever release of information about offshore companies and the people behind them. This includes, when available, the names of the real owners of those opaque structures.
The database also displays information about more than 100,000 additional offshore entities ICIJ had already disclosed in its 2013 Offshore Leaks investigation.
ICIJ is publishing the information in the public interest.
“The new data that ICIJ is now making public represents a fraction of the Panama Papers, a trove of more than 11.5 million leaked files from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the world’s top creators of hard-to-trace companies, trusts and foundations.”
“The searchable database allows users to explore the networks of companies and people that used — and sometimes abused — the secrecy of offshore locales with the help of Mossack Fonseca and other intermediaries. The leaked data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015,” the publishers of the data noted.
The ICIJ reports, that the data, which includes postal addresses, displays links to more than 200 countries and territories, from China to Chile. Users can filter the information by country and by offshore jurisdiction. They can also explore the role of banks, law firms and other gatekeepers of the financial system in facilitating the creation of offshore companies for high net worth individuals. For the first time, they can see details about shadowy Panamanian private foundations, including when available information about who controls them.
“While the interactive application opens up a world that has never been shown in this much detail, not every owner of a company that appears in the Panama Papers shows up in the public database. This is because ownership information is often buried in emails, power-of-attorney letters and internal notes of Mossack Fonseca employees and cannot easily be extracted in a systematic manner. In addition, Mossack Fonseca often failed to collect the necessary information about the ultimate owners of companies, relying instead on banks and other intermediaries to keep track of that essential data.”
Find out who’s behind almost 320,000 offshore companies and trusts from the Panama Papers and the Offshore Leaks investigations-(ICIJ)
https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/#_ga=1.219436633.1736148984.1462876644
