Peter Obi, the ex-governor of Anambra State in Southeastern Nigeria, is widely regarded in Nigeria as an advocate of good governance, openness, and transparency.

In addition to speeches on his governance records and statistics-laden prescriptions for Nigeria’s development, he likes to talk about how hugely successful he became in business before diving into politics.

In speeches and in printed literature, Mr Obi is never shy, reeling out his numerous business affiliations and accomplishments. On his website, for example, the former governor said he “was chairman of Next International Nigeria Ltd, then chairman and director of Guardian Express Mortgage Bank Ltd, Guardian Express Bank Plc, Future View Securities Ltd, Paymaster Nigeria Ltd, Chams Nigeria Ltd, Data Corp Ltd and Card Centre Ltd.”

On that same platform, the former governor also described himself as the youngest board chairperson ever appointed by Fidelity Bank Plc, a 34-year old Nigerian lender listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

But beyond the facade of priggish speeches and appearances, an investigation by PREMIUM TIMES has now shown that Mr Obi is not entirely transparent in his affairs as he likes Nigerians to believe.

The investigation is part of the global International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)-led Pandora Papers project.

The project saw 600 journalists from 150 news organisations around the world poring through a trove of 11.9 million confidential files, contextualising information, tracking down sources and analysing public records and other documents.

The leaked files were retrieved from some offshore services firms around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore entities for clients, many of them influential politicians, businesspersons and criminals, seeking to conceal their financial dealings.

The two-year collaboration has so far revealed the financial secrets of not less than 35 current and former world leaders, more than 330 public officials in more than 91 countries and territories.

Mr Obi is one of the individuals whose hidden business activities was thrown open by the project. Indeed, he has a number of secret business dealings and relationships that he has for years kept to his chest. These are businesses he clandestinely set up and operated overseas, including in notorious tax and secrecy havens in ways that breached Nigerian laws.

PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Obi with written questions and had an in-person interview with him weeks ahead of this publication.

The former governor admitted that he did not declare these companies and the funds and properties they hold in his asset declaration filings with the Code of Conduct Bureau, the Nigerian government agency that deals with the issues of corruption, conflict of interest, and abuse of office by public servants.

He said he was unaware that the law expected him to declare assets or companies he jointly owns with his family members or anyone else.

The Pandora Papers, the biggest cross-border collaboration of journalists in history, is an investigation into a vast amount of previously hidden offshore companies, exposing secret assets, covert deals and hidden fortunes of the super-rich – among them more than 130 billionaires – and the powerful, including more 30 world leaders and hundreds of former and serving public officials across the world.


The confidential documents also feature a global cast of fugitives, convicts, celebrities, football stars and others, including judges, tax officials, spy chiefs and mayors.

The leaked records came from 14 offshore services firms from around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore nooks for clients like Mr Obi, who seek to shroud their financial activities, often suspicious, in secrecy.

Peter Obi, his daughter and a secret business
Mr Obi has two children- a daughter, Gabriella Nwamaka Frances Obi, and a son, Gregory Peter Oseloka Obi. Sometime in 2010, more than four years after he became governor, the politician developed an appetite to set up his first discreet company in the British Virgin Island. He named the company Gabriella Investments Limited, after his daughter

To set up what has now become a convoluted business structure, Mr Obi first approached Acces International, a secrecy enabler in Monaco, France, to help him incorporate an offshore entity in one of the world’s most notorious tax havens noted for providing conduits for wealthy and privileged corrupt political elites to hide stolen cash to avoid the attention of tax authorities.

Tax havens are politically and economically stable offshore jurisdictions or countries with extensive laws and systems that provide little or no tax obligations, but enable high secrecy and privacy protection for foreign individuals and businesses.

Mr Obi also paid Acces International to provide nominee directors for the company. Nominee directors are residents of tax havens paid to sit on boards of companies to hide the identities of real owners of offshore firms.

So, after accepting a brief from the then governor or his representatives, Acces International officials headed to the British Virgin Island, a notorious tax haven, where it contracted a local registered agent – Aleman Cordero Galindo & Lee Trust (BVI) Limited (Alcogal) — to set up Gabriella Investments Limited for Mr Obi.

Peter Obi, his daughter and a secret business
Mr Obi has two children- a daughter, Gabriella Nwamaka Frances Obi, and a son, Gregory Peter Oseloka Obi. Sometime in 2010, more than four years after he became governor, the politician developed an appetite to set up his first discreet company in the British Virgin Island. He named the company Gabriella Investments Limited, after his daughter

To set up what has now become a convoluted business structure, Mr Obi first approached Acces International, a secrecy enabler in Monaco, France, to help him incorporate an offshore entity in one of the world’s most notorious tax havens noted for providing conduits for wealthy and privileged corrupt political elites to hide stolen cash to avoid the attention of tax authorities.

Tax havens are politically and economically stable offshore jurisdictions or countries with extensive laws and systems that provide little or no tax obligations, but enable high secrecy and privacy protection for foreign individuals and businesses.

Mr Obi also paid Acces International to provide nominee directors for the company. Nominee directors are residents of tax havens paid to sit on boards of companies to hide the identities of real owners of offshore firms.

So, after accepting a brief from the then governor or his representatives, Acces International officials headed to the British Virgin Island, a notorious tax haven, where it contracted a local registered agent – Aleman Cordero Galindo & Lee Trust (BVI) Limited (Alcogal) — to set up Gabriella Investments Limited for Mr Obi.

Antony Janse Van Vuuren, who has acted as a consistent and perpetual director for almost all of Mr Obi-related offshore entities popped up again, making the filing that brought in another Monaco-based company, Rhone Acces Sam as the sole shareholder of Granite Trust. However, Rhone Trust and Fiduciary S.A., a Swiss entity, is the ultimate holding company for Granite Trust.

Mr Peter Obi and his Man Friday
A central and recurring figure in former Governor Obi’s network of offshore companies and on whom the politician appears to place immense trust is Antony Janse Van Vuuren, a 70-year old South African based in the principality of Monaco in France. Experts in Illicit Financial Flows consider Monaco a tax haven because of its generous tax laws and policies.

According to KPMG Multi Family Office, the principality of roughly 30,000 inhabitants does not charge wealth tax, property tax, investment income tax, and capital gains tax. It also does not tax dividends and directors’ fees and unless they are French nationals, resident individuals are not subject to personal income tax while inheritance tax is zero per cent for spouses and direct beneficiaries. It is unclear if it was this mouth-watering tax regime that attracted Mr Obi to Monaco.

What is however clear is that, in 2010, four years after he became governor, the politician or his representatives hired Monaco-based Acces International, where Mr Van Vuuren has been partner and director for 25 years, to help him create a secret and intricate scheme for managing his assets. Mr Obi told PREMIUM TIMES that British Lloyds Bank’s advice informed his offshore structure decision.

From Monaco in France to Tortola in the BVI, to Wellington in New Zealand, and to Geneva in Switzerland, Mr Van Vuuren has travelled around the world running business errands for Mr Obi and taking major decisions on his behalf.

While Mr Obi stays comfortably behind the curtain, the South African has remained the face of the ex-governor’s companies and the assets they hold. For the past decade, he is the politician’s number one business arranger in the offshore world as well as the custodian of the politician’s business-related documents and correspondences.

Mr Van Vuuren, a veteran nominee director for possibly tens or hundreds of shell companies, attended the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he graduated in 1967 with a Bachelor of Commerce, Accounting and Business Management. He also obtained an MBA from Durham University in 1977.

A History of Playing Offshore
A 1991 leaked incorporation document reveals a certain Peter Obi and two other individuals – Donatus Ogbogu and Uche Okagbue – to have incorporated Beauchamp Investments Limited in Barbados.

The firm was incorporated as an international business company on August 20, 1991, with registration number 7305. The setting up of the company was handled at the time by a certain Peter L. Chase. What businesses the company does and what assets it holds remain unclear. Mr Obi denied knowledge of the firm as well as of Messrs Ogbogu and Okagbue. He said the individual who incorporated Beauchamp was possibly another businessman who happened to bear a similar name as him.

However, Next International (UK) Limited, another of the former governor’s overseas companies, was incorporated on May 16, 1996, in London. Mr Obi and his wife, Margaret, were listed as directors while Next International (Nigeria) Limited (with 999 ordinary shares) and Mr Obi (with one ordinary share) were listed as shareholders.

The exact businesses the company undertook in its 25-year history remained unclear, although, on March 8, 2001, the firm reported taking a mortgage from Lloyds TSB Bank Plc for a property on 53 Clyde Road, Croydon.

Breaking the Law: Number 1
In Nigeria, a person is statutorily obligated to withdraw from engaging in or directing a private business, except if it is farming, upon becoming a public officer, Section Six (6) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act stipulates.

However, our investigation, based on records obtained from the UK Companies House shows that Mr Obi continued to be a director of Next International (UK) Limited for 14 months after becoming the governor of Anambra State, thereby breaking Nigeria’s law. The politician resigned from the company on May 16, 2008, 14 months after he assumed duties as Anambra governor. He took office on March 17, 2006.

READ ALSO: Pandora Papers: An offshore data tsunami

Mr Obi did not dispute the records PREMIUM TIMES cited but he claimed he “resigned immediately” by handing his wife his resignation letter. He suggested that his company might have failed to effect the changes on time or the UK Companies House did not immediately document his exit. But the UK companies registry said Mr Obi indeed resigned on May 16, 2008, and that it received his notice of resignation for electronic filing on June 16, 2008.

Breaking the law: Number 2
Nigerian public officers are required to declare “immediately after taking office and thereafter all” their properties, assets, and liabilities and those of his (or her) unmarried children under the age of eighteen years,” Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution stipulates (Section 11, Part of the Fifth Schedule).

PREMIUM TIMES investigation also found that Mr Obi breached this constitutional provision on assets declaration. We can authoritatively report that Mr Obi did not declare to the Code of Conduct Bureau the companies he tucked away in offshore secrecy havens.

Mr Obi caused to be created for him a structure of secrecy that had previously, until the Pandora Papers investigation, meant he could continue to hold foreign assets in a way that breaches Nigeria’s law without the knowledge of authorities in the country. In an extra layer of secrecy, Mr Obi used paid nominees as directors, while he remains the ultimate beneficial owner, making it nearly impossible to discover his interests in those companies but we obtained rare incorporation documents proving his link.

Otherwise, Mr Obi could have forever hoped to continue to hold the assets, that he did not declare when he had a statutory obligation to do so as a governor, without any authority or the public calling him to account.

In his response, Mr Obi ridiculously suggested that those offshore companies and assets are jointly owned with his family members and that he was not under obligation to declare companies jointly owned. “I don’t declare what is owned with others,” Mr Obi told PREMIUM TIMES. “If my family owns something I won’t declare it. I didn’t declare anything I jointly owed with anyone.”

This is contrary to the position of the Constitution, which specifies the declaration of all assets, whether jointly or partly owned, PREMIUM TIMES’ reporters told Mr Obi. He said he was not aware of that provision of the law.

Nevertheless, leaked records show Mr Obi is the sole ultimate beneficial owner of the offshore companies. So he did not even jointly own it with anyone.

In that case, Mr Obi has violated Nigeria’s Code of Conduct law and, if authorities decide to act appropriately, he could be arraigned before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, a special court that tries public officers for any contravention of the Code of Conduct for Nigerian public officers as spelt out in the Fifth Schedule of the Nigerian constitution.

The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) were established to enforce “a high standard of morality in the conduct of government business, and to ensure that the actions and behaviour of public officers conform to the highest standards of public morality and accountability.”

Breaking the law: Number 3
The former governor could be charged with failing to declare his offshore holdings and their associated assets and operating foreign accounts while being a public officer.

The Nigerian constitution and the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act forbid a public officer from maintaining or operating a bank account outside Nigeria. However, as a governor, Mr. Obi continued to operate and maintain foreign accounts, including with Lloyds TSB.

READ ALSO: Pandora Papers: Global investigation exposes secrets of some of Nigeria’s rich and powerful

Mr. Obi told PREMIUM TIMES that he received the advice to create an offshore structure from Lloyds TSB, which then introduced him to intermediaries who helped him to set up com where he continued to operate a foreign account as a governor.

The offences violate sections of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended.

Asked if he is concerned that Nigerians would be disappointed at him following our finding of his opaque and lawless dealings as a governor, Mr Obi said he was more concerned about his U.K. and U.S. schools alumni network, his business and foreign creditors. He insisted that he served well as Anambra governor and Nigerians already have their opinions about him.

The former governor could be charged for failing to declare the company and its associated assets and perhaps operating foreign accounts while being a public officer.

Mr Obi told PREMIUM TIMES that he received the advice to create an offshore structure from Lloyds where he continued to operate a foreign account as a governor.

The offences violate sections of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended.

Mr Obi and missed tax opportunity
In June 2017, the federal government launched the Voluntary Assets and Income Disclosure Scheme (VAIDS), an initiative seeking voluntary disclosure of previously undeclared assets and income with a view to paying all outstanding liabilities. The VAIDS offered a nine-month window and incentives that included immunity from prosecution for tax evasion and undeclared assets, which would have benefited people like Mr Obi.

A key objective of the VAIDS was curbing illicit financial flows and tax evasion, which commonly feature the use of offshore holdings to shift taxes from where they are earned to havens where little or no taxes are paid.

The government in 2017 said defaulting individuals and corporate bodies who failed to take advantage of the VAIDS would be subject to criminal prosecution.

A number of Nigerian public officials with previously undeclared assets tucked away overseas participated in the VAIDS and got clearance certificates. Mr. Obi shunned the scheme and continued with his opaque business dealings in breach of the law.

Source: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/487997-pandora-papers-inside-peter-obis-secret-businesses-and-how-he-broke-the-law.html

Weré Lathief.

Can you summarise this epistle you copied and pasted here. What exactly did he do wrong.

Putting his own personal funds where he will pay less taxes and setting up family trusts in safe places for his children ito inherit if he dies s not a crime.

na where wealthy men take different from average men be that. He makes money and saves and protect it for his family to have access to it easily whenever he dies.

You had better set up a Trust yourself and right quick.

They have paid this drlateef to write this Nonsense.

Truth be told, Peter Obi milked Anambra!

Zero legacy for 8 good years as a governor!

And still had effrontery to say that he was saving, as if Yobe State Governor did not make savings for his state.

Siphoning public funds to Panama! And still preach to his unhealthy followers that they need to invest in the country.

And Tinubu that set up Alpha-Beta to still LASG fund since 2001 is a saint

Noted

Lateefu, forget story. This propaganda no dey sell again.

TOPCRUISE:
They have paid this drlateef to write this Nonsense.

Nobody can pay me, I probably earn more than any salary earner in NIGERIA. So I am comfortable. Alhamdulilah.

drlateef:



Nobody can pay me, I probably earn more than any salary earner in NIGERIA. So I am comfortable. Alhamdulilah.

See this mumu talk

So you took all this time to do "a copy and paste incorrigible writeup."

Your efulefu is on another level


Go and verify.

SARSCoV2:
Truth be told, Peter Obi milked Anambra!

Zero legacy for 8 good years as a governor!

And still had effrontery to say that he was saving, as if Yobe State Governor did not make savings for his state.

Siphoning public funds to Panama! And still preach to his unhealthy followers that they need to invest in the country.

Nobody is forcing HE Peter Obi down your throat, go with your Tinubu or Atiku

The man na heavy thief.

SARSCoV2:
Truth be told, Peter Obi milked Anambra!

Zero legacy for 8 good years as a governor!

You need to see the roads of the state capital, Awka when Obi was the Governor. Pọtọpọtọ everywhere. Thanks to Obiano for his urban renewal project.

When Obi was the Governor, kidnapping was rampant in Onitsha. When I see people hailing him today, I just laugh, we forget things so easily.
No politician is clean in Nigeria.
All of them dey play ball. Including Obi Nwanne

drlateef:



Nobody can pay me, I probably earn more than any salary earner in NIGERIA. So I am comfortable. Alhamdulilah.

You're just wasting your time with this fake lies and wicked propaganda..

This Obi movement is even bigger than peter obi himself , it's unstoppable..

Stop wasting your time , it's peter obi or nothing .

NaijaRoyalty:

You're just wasting your time with this fake lies and wicked propaganda..

This Obi movement is even bigger than peter obi himself , it's unstoppable..

Stop wasting your time , it's peter obi or nothing .

Many will choose to find the truth and not remain blind like you.

drlateef:



Many will choose to find the truth and not remain blind like you.

And Tinubu is the truth?
You're just a clown

All of them corrupt dirty humans. None of the top candidates vying for Presidency seem to have integrity. Disappointing.

Tinubu
Atiku
Obi

NaijaRoyalty:


And Tinubu is the truth?
You're just a clown

My words are for the wise, not dullards.

It was a shameful reaction from PO on Arise TV when he reacted to Pandora leak. And he was still laughing. He was too used to his dumb praise singers that he assumed everybody was not intelligent.
This part got me:
"He said he was unaware that the law expected him to declare assets or companies he jointly owns with his family members or anyone else"
Haba! E beru oluon in Adeola Fayehuns words .

Dead on arrival

otipoju:
Weré Lathief.

Can you summarise this epistle you copied and pasted here. What exactly did he do wrong.

Putting his own personal funds where he will pay less taxes and setting up family trusts in safe places for his children ito inherit if he dies s not a crime.

na where wealthy men take different from average men be that. He makes money and saves and protect it for his family to have access to it easily whenever he dies.

You had better set up a Trust yourself and right quick.

A lot of Nigerians don't know that there is something called an inheritance tax in the West. Where the Government imposes a 40% tax on you for dying, thereby forcing your heir to sell off your estate in order to pay inheritance tax.

To mitigate this, wealthy individual MUST secure their assets offshore through a trust. Anyone worth above $10,000,000 without a proper tax structure will learn a bitter lesson when they die.

We love Pandora

Vote for peter Obi to transform Nigeria, no paid back job to discredit an honest businessman will succeed.

Peter Obi will erase poverty from our Nigerian youths dictionary.

Vote for Peter Obi in the north, south, east, west and everywhere.

Lateefu, remember fable

drlateef:



My words are for the wise, not dullards.

How can a dullard call the wise a dullard?? Wonders they say shall never end

Moferere:

You need to see the roads of the state capital, Awka when Obi was the Governor. Pọtọpọtọ everywhere. Thanks to Obiano for his urban renewal project.

When Obi was the Governor, kidnapping was rampant in Onitsha. When I see people hailing him today, I just laugh, we forget things so easily.
No politician is clean in Nigeria.
All of them dey play ball. Including Obi Nwanne

Government is a continuum. Did Fashola inherit PotoPoto from Tinubu? Yes. Yet Fashola did his best. Did Ambode inherit PotoPoto? Yes. Yet he tried his best. Even sanwolu has inherited his own poto poto. Will he work on it? Yes. So calm down

drlateef:



Nobody can pay me, I probably earn more than any salary earner in NIGERIA. So I am comfortable. Alhamdulilah.

Poor urchin.

They paid you 30k to do this dirty job.

You're really shameless.

Imagine you wishing Nigeria to remain under the evil clutches of Tinubu and APC.

You're indeed a buffoon.


You're the capital of Senselessness

Freethinker87:


A lot of Nigerians don't know that there is something called an inheritance tax in the West. Where the Government imposes a 40% tax on you for dying, thereby forcing your heir to sell off your estate in order to pay inheritance tax.

To mitigate this, wealthy individual MUST secure their assets offshore through a trust. Anyone worth above $10,000,000 without a proper tax structure will learn a bitter lesson when they die.

Most of the YoruBandits posting this garbage are fantastic illiterates claiming sophisticated.

Indeed they are SOPHISTICATED MORONS.

Yoruba's can't argue, so they resort to insults / tantrum.

Buccalcavity2:
It was a shameful reaction from PO on Arise TV when he reacted to Pandora leak. And he was still laughing. He was too used to his dumb praise singers that he assumed everybody was not intelligent.
This part got me:
"He said he was unaware that the law expected him to declare assets or companies he jointly owns with his family members or anyone else"
Haba! E beru oluon in Adeola Fayehuns words .

YoruBandits, why haven't you taken him to court?

Why is is only Yorubas that try him on The nation's newspaper and premium times(tears) online fraud media?

Useless jealous people.


You sold your soul for 30k....olodo.

SARSCoV2:
Truth be told, Peter Obi milked Anambra!

Zero legacy for 8 good years as a governor!

And still had effrontery to say that he was saving, as if Yobe State Governor did not make savings for his state.

Siphoning public funds to Panama! And still preach to his unhealthy followers that they need to invest in the country.

yeah he milked Anambra state to become one of d best states in Nigeria via education, economy.....yet when we talk about ur Tinubu...u will be d first to tell us to go n investigate.....una madness get levels