List of African leaders hiding wealth exposed through Pandora Papers here

The Pandora Papers are a massive trove of nearly 12 million confidential documents that were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) (ICIJ).

The tax documents expose secretive offshore financial structures and trusts in tax havens, thereby casting a light on the shadowy financial tactics of the world’s powerful, including those in Africa.

Which African leaders and families are implicated?
The ICIJ investigation found that nearly 50 politicians and public officials from 18 African countries had connections to offshore entities. The most important include:

Uhuru Kenyatta, president of Kenya
Denis Sassou Nguesso, president of the Republic of the Congo
Ali Bongo Ondimba, president of Gabon
Patrick Achi, prime minister of the Ivory Coast
Jim Muhwezi, security minister of Uganda
Aires Ali, former prime minister of Mozambique
Graphic shows that the highest concentration of Pandora tax evaders were in Eurasia
Fewer African officials were unmasked in the papers, but the list is distinguished

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta
According to the ICIJ, Kenyatta’s family has been “secretly collecting a personal fortune behind offshore corporate veils” as shown by leaked records.

According to the Pandora Papers, Kenyatta, his mother, sisters, and brother held assets worth more than $30 million (€25.8 million). These assets were hidden “from public scrutiny” in Panama and the British Virgin Islands through foundations and companies registered in tax havens.

Shell corporations established in the British Virgin Islands, as well as foundations established in Panama, allow their owners to avoid publicly publishing their names.

Seven members of Kenyatta’s family are linked to 11 offshore firms, according to data. However, it is not always apparent what assets these entities had or how they were used.

According to the ICIJ, Uhuru Kenyatta’s younger brother Muhoho operated three shell firms.

“One had a bank account with a $31.6 million investment portfolio in 2016; another had unidentified investments at a London bank,” the ICIJ reported.

President Kenyatta has portrayed himself as a zealous anti-corruption crusader in recent years. In the run-up to the 2017 elections, he promised to battle corruption.

Kenyatta and his family did not respond to calls for comment from the ICIJ.

In front of a microphone, Denis Sassou Nguesso gives a speech.

77-77-77year-old Congo has been ruled by President Sassou Nguesso for more than 36 years.

Denis Sassou Nguesso is the President of Congo.
According to the ICIJ research, President Sassou Nguesso owned a business that held diamond mines in the Congo, which are “among the country’s most valuable assets.”

The ownership of the mines in the resource-rich country by Sassou Nguesso was previously unknown.

Sassou Nguesso’s ownership was concealed, according to the ICIJ, by founding the corporation in the British Virgin Islands.

According to earlier studies by anti-corruption organizations such as Global Witness, the Sassou-Nguesso family has ruled the Republic of Congo for nearly 40 years, a reign defined by widespread corruption and misappropriation of the country’s riches.

President Ali Bongo of Gabon lifts his hand in greeting after taking over the presidency from his father in 2009.

President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon
According to the Pandora Papers, President Bongo operated two shell businesses in the British Virgin Islands with unknown intentions.
The shell firms have vanished.

Ali Bongo’s family has been involved in the country’s politics for more than 50 years, and they’ve been accused of stealing state funds for nearly as long. Omar Bongo, his father, ruled Gabon with an iron fist for more than 40 years until his death in 2009, when Ali Bongo took over.

The family has already been probed for corruption by French and US authorities.

Patrick Achi, Prime Minister of Ivory Coast
According to leaked records, Achi became the proprietor of a Bahamas-based firm in 1998 while serving as an adviser to the minister of energy. Through a trust structure, his ownership, which lasted until at least 2006, remained hidden.

The Pandora Papers don’t say what the company’s assets were or what it was for.

The depiction of lightning tearing down houses in the Pandora Papers is symbolic. The Pandora Papers are a collection of 11.9 million leaked documents from 14 different offshore service providers.

Former Prime Minister of Mozambique, Aires Ali
According to the released documents, Aires Ali engaged a Swiss tax consultancy to set up a shell business in the Seychelles less than a month before he was fired as Prime Minister in 2012.

The corporation was given a shareholder and directors by another firm, disguising who owned it. Ali, a long-serving lawmaker, later gave the company permission to open a bank account in Lisbon. The Pandora Papers do not reveal the company’s aim.

Ugandan Security Minister Jim Muhwezi Muhwezi, who is connected to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni by marriage, owned and held shares in two shell firms, one in the British Virgin Islands and the other in Cyprus.