According to Jersey officials, some Africans held assets worth $70 billion by the end of 2012.
For instance, while Africa has the smallest
nominal share of regional illicit outflows (7.7 per cent) over the
period studied, it has the highest average illicit outflows to GDP ratio
(5.7 per cent), suggesting that the loss of capital has an outsized
impact on the continent.
The Global Financial Integrity report of 2013 obtained by The Citizen estimates that illicit cash outflows from Tanzania between 2008 and 2011 reached a total of $2.935 billion.
It is estimated that some Tanzanians own assets
worth $750 million in Jersey. The report revealed the yearly amount
transferred as follows: 2008 ($390 million); 2009 ($315 million): 2010
($1.313 billion) and 2011 ($917 million).
Data from the report show that during the
election year, in 2010, the amount transferred from Tanzania to various
offshore accounts rose by 400 per cent.
Offshore trick—how nominee director system operates
According to a report by the UK’s Guardian
newspaper, nominee directors are not illegal and can sometimes be
useful, for example in preparing “off-the-shelf” ready-made companies.
But the legal conjuring trick behind the British Virgin Islands nominee
system opens the way to abuses. It depends on three pieces of paper:
A promise by a nominee director only to do what the real owner tells them
A characteristic “nominee director declaration”,
used in 2010 by the Vanuatu-based Taylor organisation, reads like this:
“I, Ian Taylor, Director BRAD LAND LTD, having agreed to the appointment
as director of a company duly incorporated under the laws of the
British Virgin Islands [BVI] … hereby declare that I shall only act upon
instruction from the beneficial owners.”
A “general power of attorney”
The nominee secretly hands back all control to
that real owner. Typically, “To transact, manage and do all and every
business matter … To open any bank account and to operate the same … To
enter into all contracts … To collect debts, rents and other money due.”
That example, signed by a Nevis-resident nominee
director in 2005, gives back control of a BVI offshore company, Kordwell
Holdings, to its secret Russian owner, Vladimir Bugrov, in Moscow. One
typical agency, the Haslemere-based accountants Fletcher Kennedy,
explicitly advertise: “Both the power of attorney and nominee director
agreement are confidential documents designed to ensure our clients’
privacy.” They said the website was “a historic one dropped by us some
time ago”.
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