Offshore Leaks: President Jonathan’s adviser, ex-oil minister linked to secret offshore firms

Ahmed Gulak has his hand in a secret pie in the British Virgin Island.
President Goodluck Jonathan's special adviser on political matters,
Ahmed Gulak, leads a growing list of Nigerian business and political
elites who ran or still run secret offshore companies and accounts
where they either hide their wealth to evade taxes, launder money or
commit fraud, according to a cache of documents reviewed by PREMIUM
TIMES and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ,
ICIJ.
Mr. Gulak, who deals in the supply of fast boats, radial systems and
naval communication equipment as well as military hardware to the
Nigerian government, was linked to a secret shell company in the
British Virgin Islands, one of the world's most notorious tax havens.
Mr. Gulak is listed along with a former petroleum minister, Edmund
Daukouru, and a former head of the Nigeria Ports Authority, Bello
Gwandu, as key Nigerians indulging in this practice, according to our
investigations.
Ahmed Gulak acts as legal adviser to Erojim Group of Companies ,
according to information available on the company's website. Erojim is
a contracting firm that claims to supply fast boats, radial systems
and naval communication equipment and other military hardware to the
Nigerian government in liaison with its foreign partner, Poly
Technologies, and NORINCO, both of China.
On the other hand, Edmund Daukouru , a former petroleum minister sits
on the board of Caverton Offshore Support Group, a Lagos-based
provider of integrated offshore support services in Nigeria but which
has also bounded with some foreigners to form a secret company abroad.
Also on Caverton's nine-man board is Bello Gwandu, a ruling party
politician and former managing director of the Nigeria Ports
Authority, a federal agency that oversees and operates the ports of
the world's most populous black nation.
Mr. Gulak, a lawyer and former lawmaker in Nigeria's Northwest state
of Adamawa, is one of President Jonathan's closest aides, having
worked as director of mobilization in the campaign that returned the
president to power in 2011. As legal adviser and close associate of
Jimmy Ntuen, Erojim's CEO, Mr. Gulak helped draft the legal papers for
the incorporation of Erojim and its subsidiaries, including assisting
Mr. Ntuen, who suddenly became Jimmy Ernest, when the British Virgin
Island's version of Erojim was being incorporated.
These individuals are among a number of Nigerian officials and
business persons who have links with shell companies abroad. It is not
clear why they incorporated these shell companies – that is
corporations that exist but do not have employees or assets and carry
out no visible operations. But Shell companies, according to Fraud
Auditing Inc., a worldwide authority on fraud, have become
progressively known for their involvement with illegal activities,
including money laundering, tax evasion, billing schemes and
fictitious service schemes.
Taking advantage of the loose laws in several jurisdictions, shell
companies are easy to form and owners can remain anonymous while using
nominee directors as fronts and deploying the corporations to hide
ill-gotten assets, launder funds, dodge litigations or evade tax.
An example is convicted former Nigerian state governor, Diepreye
Alamieyeseigha, who was found to have used Solomon & Peters (a shell
company registered in the British Virgin Islands) and Santolina
Investment Corporation, (a company incorporated in the Seychelles), to
steal public funds with which he acquired assets valued at about 17.7
million British pounds while governor of the oil-rich state of
Bayelsa. Nigeria's anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, has also accused another ex-governor, Abubakar
Audu, of using two offshore companies in Bermuda (another tax haven)
to hide ill-gotten assets.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is the 35th most corrupt
country in the world, according to Transparency International's 2012
rankings. Although the country has enormous oil resources, earning
$24.5billion a year, according to the Revenue Watch Institute, most of
its wealth are routinely stolen by kleptomaniac leaders who usually
form shell companies to conceal their ill-gotten assets. The result is
that the West African giant has remained among the most
poverty-stricken in the world, ranking 156 th out of the 187 countries
rated in the United Nation's most recent Human Development Index. Read
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