Panama Papers: Nigerian Aliko Dangote, Richest Man,Now Facing Scrutiny.
Panama Papers: Nigerian Aliko Dangote, Richest Man,Now Facing Scrutiny.
By Rowlandgate.
The head of Africa’s largest cement producer, Aliko Dangote has built his substantial fortune upon solid foundations. But these could be shaken following the Panama Papers leak, which involved the disclosure of 11.5 million confidential tax documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
Dangote has become one of several high-profile Nigerians— including Senate President Bukola Saraki and disgraced former Delta state governor James Ibori—to be implicated in the leak, which exposed how the world’s rich and famous use offshore facilities and shell companies to hide their wealth. The use of offshore shell companies is not necessarily illegal but is often a tactic employed to avoid paying tax.
Ranked as Africa’s richest man by Forbes in 2015 and currently worth an estimated $17.3 billion, Dangote—the vvvvchief executive of the Dangote Group—has been closely linked to at least four offshore shell companies—and as many as 13 through his family and business associates—according to Rowlandgate a reporting partner of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which broke the leak.
According to Odogwublog.com , Dangote along with his half-brother Sayyu Dantata, both bought shares in 2003 in Ovlas S.A., a shell company registered in the Seychelles. A company co-owned by Dangote and Dantata, MRS Oil and Gas Co. Limited, also bought shares in the Seychelles-based company at the same time.
The trio ceased to be shareholders in Ovlas S.A. in 2006, according to the leaked Mossack Fonseca files, but it appears that the three simply sold the shares back to themselves. In 2009, Dangote finally ceased to be a shareholder, but apparently sold his shares to Dantata and MRS.
