From PREMIUM TIMES

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is no stranger to using shell companies in offshore tax havens. The influential industrialist is one of the prominent figures around the world whose names popped up in the infamous #PanamaPapers database as having links with shell companies in notorious tax havens.

Documents from the leaked internal data of Panama-based offshore provider, Mossack Fonseca, had, in 2016, linked Mr Dangote, alongside his half-brother Sayyu Dantata, to at least 13 shell companies in Seychelles, a rising offshore tax haven.

In 2015, this newspaper, in partnership with French newspaper, Le Monde, also exposed Mr Dangote as one of the owners of secretive foreign accounts with the Swiss branch of banking behemoth, HSBC.

But in what is perhaps his biggest singular involvement with offshore entities yet, Mr Dangote has an equity worth $5.8 billion in Greenview International Corp., a Cayman Islands shell company, PREMIUM TIMES can report.

The Nigerian businessman, who is Africa’s richest personality, is valued at $12.1 billion.

From Panama to Cayman Islands

Documents obtained by PREMIUM TIMES from the leaked database of global offshore law firm, Appleby, as part of the ongoing Paradise Papers reporting, show that Greenview is a classic shell company, originally incorporated by Mr Dangote in Panama in 1994.

The 1.9 terra byte data vault was obtained by German newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ in turn shared the data with more than 380 journalists from 96 media organisations in 67 countries.

Documents show that a certain Vernon Emmanuel (who doubles as the president of the company), Delio Mela and LiliaTovar De Leon were appointed nominee directors when the company was first incorporated on July 16, 1994. Nominee directors are residents of a tax haven paid to hide identities of real owners of offshore companies.

The three directors resigned from the company on August 24, 2015 the same day Mr Dangote was named sole director and shareholder of the company.

IMAGE: Photo: Premium Times Aliko Dangote.

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