Mind
blowing investigations have revealed that President Goodluck Jonathan’s special
adviser on political matters, Ahmed Gulak, leads a growing list of Nigerian
business and political elites who ran or still run secret offshore companies
and accounts where they either hide their wealth to evade taxes, launder money
or commit fraud.
Mr.
Gulak, who deals in the supply of fast boats, radial systems and naval
communication equipment as well as military hardware to the Nigerian
government, was linked to a secret shell company in the British Virgin Islands,
one of the world’s most notorious tax havens by International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists, ICIJ.
The
politician is listed along with a former petroleum minister, Edmund Daukouru,
and a former head of the Nigeria Ports Authority, Bello Gwandu, as key
Nigerians indulging in this practice, according to our investigations.
Ahmed
Gulak acts as legal adviser to Erojim Group of Companies, a contracting firm
that claims to supply fast boats, radial systems and naval communication
equipment and other military hardware to the Nigerian government in liaison
with its foreign partner, Poly Technologies, and NORINCO, both of China according
to information available on the company’s website.
On the other hand, Edmund
Daukouru, a former petroleum minister sits on the board of Caverton
Offshore Support Group, a Lagos-based provider of integrated offshore support
services in Nigeria which has also bounded with some foreigners to form a
secret company abroad. Also on Caverton’s nine-man board is Bello Gwandu, a
ruling party politician and former managing director of the Nigeria Ports
Authority, a federal agency that oversees and operates the ports of the world’s
most populous black nation.
Mr.
Gulak, a lawyer and former lawmaker in Nigeria’s Northwest state of Adamawa, is
one of President Jonathan’s closest aides, having worked as director of
mobilization in the campaign that returned the president to power in
2011. As legal adviser and close associate of Jimmy Ntuen, Erojim’s CEO,
Mr. Gulak helped draft the legal papers for the incorporation of Erojim and its
subsidiaries, including assisting Mr. Ntuen, who suddenly became Jimmy Ernest,
when the British Virgin Island’s version of Erojim was being incorporated.
These
individuals are among a number of Nigerian officials and businesspersons who
have links with shell companies abroad. It is not clear why they incorporated
these shell companies – that is corporations that exist but do not have
employees or assets and carry out no visible operations. But Shell companies,
according to Fraud Auditing Inc., a worldwide authority on fraud, have become
progressively known for their involvement with illegal activities, including
money laundering, tax evasion, billing schemes and fictitious service schemes.
Taking
advantage of the loose laws in several jurisdictions, shell companies are easy
to form and owners can remain anonymous while using nominee directors as fronts
and deploying the corporations to hide ill-gotten assets, launder funds, dodge
litigations or evade tax.
An
example is convicted former Nigerian state governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha,
who was found to have used Solomon & Peters (a shell company registered in
the British Virgin Islands) and Santolina Investment Corporation, (a company
incorporated in Seychelles), to steal public funds with which he acquired
assets valued at about 17.7 million British pounds while he was governor
of the oil-rich state of Bayelsa. Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, has also accused another
ex-governor, Abubakar Audu, of using two offshore companies in Bermuda
(another tax haven) to hide ill-gotten assets.
Nigeria,
Africa’s most populous country, is the 35th most corrupt country in
the world, according to Transparency International’s 2012 rankings. Although
the country has enormous oil resources, earning $24.5billion a year, according
to the Revenue Watch Institute, most of its wealth are routinely stolen by
kleptomaniac leaders who usually form shell companies to conceal their
ill-gotten assets. The result is that the West African giant has remained among
the most poverty-stricken in the world, ranking 156th out of
the 187 countries rated in the United Nation’s most recent Human
Development Index.
The
Tax Justice Network, an international group campaigning against tax havens,
estimates that about $11.5 trillion is held offshore by individuals – with a
resulting annual loss of tax revenue on the income from these assets of about
250 billion dollars. “This is five times what the World Bank estimated in 2002 was needed to address the
UN Millenium Development Goal of halving world poverty by 2015,” the group
said. “This much money could also pay to transform the world’s energy
infrastructure to tackle climate change.”
These
funds are usually held via shell companies in tax havens. It is not clear
whether that is what Mr. Gulak’s Erojim Energy and Equipment, registered in the
BVI on June 8, 2006, set out to accomplish. The company, with
registration number 1032037, is listed on company website as a subsidiary of
Erojim Group of Companies to which Mr. Gulak is directly affiliated. The
offshore Erojim has company chairman, Jimmy Ntuen Ernest (45,000 shares) and a
certain Wang Yong (5000 shares) as directors. Mr. Yong, listed on company
website as director of commercials, is in turn related to around 40 other shell
corporations, raising questions about whether he is a nominee director and what
his real business motives are.
The
Nigerian version of Erojim was incorporated in 2000 and it has, by its own
admission, done businesses with the Nigerian government through its ministries
of defence and education. It is not known whether Mr. Gulak has tapped his
closeness to the government to facilitate businesses for Erojim. But it is common
for officials in Nigeria to use fronts to corner contracts for themselves.
Company
documents suggest that Erojim BVI is inactive having been struck out for non
payment in October 31, 2007, but owners have continued to showcase the
firm on company website as a viable subsidiary in the British Virgin
Islands. The group also suggests it has two subsidiaries in the United
Kingdom – Barnes and Tubbies Linited (with registration number 6620080) and
Erojim Investment Limited (with registration number 6620062) raising even more
questions about the company’s seeming fetish for incorporating offshore
companies not known to carry out business operations. Erojim’s chairman seems
to peddle double identities as well. While he is known as (Obong) Jimmy O.Ntuen
on company website, he is identified as Jimmy Ntuen Ernest in Erojim BVI’s
company documents, again raising questions about his business tactics.
