Named in new tax haven affair, Saraki says ‘I broke no law’

The name of Senate President Bukola Saraki is among more than 120 politicians and leaders in nearly 50 countries who have reportedly been utilising shell companies in tax havens to either conceal assets, evade tax, or launder funds.

This comes 18 months after a similar investigation exposed his ownership of at least three secret offshore firms which he allegedly used in concealing assets abroad.

PREMIUM TIMES, a member of the the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), said the findings showed that Saraki sits on the board of the offshore entity while he was governor and later member of the senate in violation of Nigeria’s code of conduct law.

But in a statement on Monday afternoon, Sarak said he did not break any law as Tenia, the offshore company, “operated no bank account and had been a dormant entity since creation”.

WHAT IS TAX HEAVEN?

• A tax haven is a jurisdiction that offers favourable tax or other conditions to its taxpayers as relative to other jurisdictions. Wealthy individuals are known register companies in tax havens in order to evade taxation back home, thereby denying their government enormous revenue. It is a moral rather than criminal issue in many instances.

The politician reportedly set up Tenia Limited in the Cayman Islands — a tax haven in the Caribbean — in 2001 and ran it until at least 2015 as director and sole shareholder.

The report said it is unclear what business he transacted with the entity and what asset he might have used it to conceal.

But Saraki failed to list the firm in his assets declaration filings when he was elected governor of Kwara in 2003, in defiance of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act.

He also did not list the company when he was reelected governor in 2007 and when he was elected senator in 2011.

The latest details emerged from a leaked data obtained by German newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, and ICIJ from two offshore secrecy providers (Appleby and Asiaciti Trust) and 19 secrecy jurisdictions.

The leaked 1.4 terabyte data, now dubbed “Paradise Papers”, contains 13.4 million records and is no doubt one of the biggest leaks in history.

There have also been debates about the ethics of using tax havens, where an estimated $32 trillion is believed held in offshore accounts, depriving their originating countries of tax revenues.

Andrew Stephenson of Discreet Law, a London-based law firm that represents Saraki, confirmed that the senate president owned Tenia Ltd., but absolved him of any wrongdoing.

“There’s nothing unlawful in the ownership of offshore companies,” Stephenson said in response to an ICIJ enquiry, adding that the company had never been active since it was set up,” he said.

“We are instructed that Tenia Ltd. has never held any assets, nor has it ever traded or conducted any other business, nor does it have anything to do with the tribunal proceedings in Nigeria.”

Asked why Saraki failed to declare the firm to the Code of Conduct Bureau in a follow-up e-mail, Stephenson said his client needed more time to respond.

The code of conduct law requires public office holders to declare own assets, as well as those owned by their spouses and children below the age of 18.

Saraki was said to have registered Tenia Ltd. in 2001 with 30 Saka Tinubu Street, Victoria Island, Lagos as base.

The property on that address was investigated as part of Saraki’s assets declaration trial, but he said he only rented an office in the building.

Saraki’s trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) was quashed on June 14, 2017.

In his capacity as head of the senate, Nigeria’s number three citizen has inaugurated several panels saddled with the responsibility of probing corruption.

SARAKI RESPONDS

Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki’s spokesman, said: “Once again, the issue of offshore company registration, which was first raised in 2016 is being revived and thrown to the public space. As a responsible public officer, Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, will continue to explain his position. We know this is the period of politics when mudslinging is a common trick in the game.

“However, we will like to make it known that Dr. Saraki violated no law and did nothing illegal in the course of registering the company under reference, Tenia Limited, and afterwards.

“As we had earlier explained when the issue was first brought into public view, the company in question, Tenia Limited, was incorporated in 2001, long before Dr. Saraki ventured into politics and was elected into public office.

“The company from incorporation to date had never been used for any transaction. It held no asset. It had no bank account to the best of the knowledge of Dr. Saraki. Even if it did, the Senate President was not a signatory to such account. This is just a paper company and therefore could not have been used to hide any asset.

“The company, unlike the other ones investigated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), had been a dormant entity from creation such that when in late 2015, its existence was raised with the Senate President, he could not readily recollect that there was such a company linked to him.

“He then immediately directed that the company be struck off.

“For the umpteenth time, we will reiterate the fact that the Senate President has fully complied with the law on assets declaration, even as it concerns the company under reference.”