Entrepreneurs and government officials in 52 of Africa’s 54 countries are using secret offshore companies to hide corrupt dealings and stash away billions of dollars, a major investigation reveals.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) says the Panama Papers, a leaked cache of 11 million legal documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, exposes the large-scale plunder of Africa.
BY BREZHNEV MALABA
The revelations come two weeks before former South African president Thabo Mbeki is due to lead a panel discussion on illicit financial flows at the 77th biennial conference of the International Law Association, scheduled for the Sandton Convention Centre, in Joburg.
A UN High-Level Panel on illicit financial flows, chaired by Mbeki, has bemoaned the proliferation of “secrecy jurisdictions” – offshore tax havens which shelter disguised corporations and shell companies that exist on paper only.
These jurisdictions also operate anonymous trust accounts and fake charitable foundations, which specialise in money laundering and trade over-invoicing and under-pricing.
The African Development Bank says between $1.2 trillion and $1.4 trillion has left Africa in illicit financial flows between 1980 and 2009 – roughly equal to Africa’s current gross domestic product and surpassing by far the money received by the continent from outside over the same period.
Published in the African Independent
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