Revelations have emerged on how the President of the Nigerian Senate, Bukola Saraki sent his foreign lawyers to Panama to help him clean up all tracks leading to the undeclared offshore assets stashed away in tax havens there, something which flies against Nigeria’s code of conduct law.
It was gathered the lawmaker sponsored his lawyers to Panama to help him hide company documents at the headquarters of Mossack Fonseca.
It would be recalled that on April 4, 2016, an online newspaper, Premium Times had published details of the offshore assets owned by Saraki and his wife, Toyin, concealed in offshore tax heavens as part of the Panama Papers cross border investigation.
The revelations coincided with the false assets declaration trial of the senator at the Code of Conduct Bureau in Abuja, but the charges were largely about his local assets and some foreign bank accounts because authorities had not uncovered his offshore shell companies.
The Senate President’s lawyers in the United Kingdom dismissed the allegations altogether, saying his offshore firms were legal while his false assets charges were baseless and politically-motivated.
Saraki also claimed the assets belonged to his wife’s family and that he had no personal connection with them.
According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) following the story story, few hours after the story was published on April 4, 2016, Saraki’s London-based lawyers touched down in Panama to examine files of his companies at the headquarters of Mossack Fonseca.
The ICIJ which got a wind of the covert face saving trip revealed that Signature Litigation, an exclusive commercial litigation firm based in London, sent Kate Vtorygina to Panama to tidy up company documents of Sandon Developments Limited, registered by Toyin Saraki.
While her husband served as governor of Kwara State, Mrs. Saraki had registered Sandon Limited in Seychelles in January 2011. Recently, also, it was gathered that Seychelles authorities have commenced criminal investigation of the couple, with detectives there focusing on the possibilities that Mr Saraki owned all the assets but used his wife as front.
Signature Litigation told Mossack Fonseca in an April 3, 2016 exchange that the Sarakis wanted to “make sure” that company files (i.e. due diligence, corporate documents, agreements, contracts, etc.) were properly integrated into “company files of Mossack Fonseca” in order to be able to properly counter further publications of assets linked to the Sarakis which they thought were imminent at the time.
Their fear was that more damaging documents on the assets might be published, and that the trip to Mossack Fonseca’s headquarters was necessary to determine what other incriminating details were in the files and straighten documents regarding the hidden assets.
It was yet unclear the extent of changes Ms Vtorygina made to the files of assets owned by the Sarakis at Mossack Fonseca, which closed down operations earlier this year, ultimately consumed by the Panama Papers leak.
But the development showed the Sarakis set in motion strategies to contain damages done to the family by a scandal that could draw charges for both false assets declaration and tax evasion.
Signature Litigation also tried to access documents of other companies linked to the Sarakis in possession of Mossack Fonseca, but they were denied access.
The false assets declaration and money laundering allegations raised by the Code of Conduct Bureau and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, respectively, have not been concluded several years later.
While the money laundering allegations against Nigeria’s number three man are still being investigated, Saraki had continued to strongly deny any links to the accusations and urged Nigerians to see them as politically-motivated.
Efforts to get reaction from the media officials working in the office of the Senate President proved abortive, but the Code of Conduct Tribunal already found the top lawmaker not guilty on all the 18 counts of false assets filings brought against him by the Nigerian government.
The government challenged the ruling at the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the conclusion of the tribunal on all but three counts in a December 12 ruling. But Mr Saraki swiftly appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which is now scheduled to deliver its judgment on July 6.
