EXPOSING PETER OBI AND HIS DAUGHTER’S SECRET BUSINESS DEAL ~secret document
It has been revealed the by the Pandora Papers, which reveal shoddy deals of the suoer-rich that the former governor of Anambra State, Mr PETER OBI opened a secret company with his daughter’s name.
OBI has two children: a daughter called GABRIELLA NWAMAKA FRANCES OBI and a son called GREGORY PETER OSELOKA OBI.
Sometime in 2010, more than four years after PETER OBI became governor, he developed an appetite to set up his first discreet company in the British Virgin Island. He named the company after his daughter, Gabriella Investments Limited.
To set up what has now become a convoluted business structure, Mr OBI first approached Acces International, a secrecy enabler in Monaco, France, to help him incorporate an offshore entity in one of the world’s most notorious Tax Havens noted for providing conduits for wealthy and privileged corrupt political elites to hide stolen cash to avoid the attention of tax authorities.
Tax Havens are politically and economically stable offshore jurisdictions or countries with extensive laws and systems that provide little or no tax obligations but enable high secrecy and privacy protection for foreign individuals and businesses.
Mr Obi also paid Acces International to provide nominee Directors for the company. Nominee directors are residents of Tax Havens paid to sit on boards of companies to hide the identities of real owners of offshore firms.
So, after accepting a brief from the then governor or his representatives, Acces International officials headed to the British Virgin Island, a notorious Tax Haven, where it contracted a local registered agent – Aleman CORDERO GALINDO & Lee Trust (BVI) Limited (Alcogal) — to set up Gabriella Investments Limited for Mr OBI.
The 36-year old ALCOGAL is a Panamanian law firm that went on to open overseas subsidiaries offering company formation and registered agent services in BVI, Seychelles, Belize and Bahamas and the preparation of corporate documentation in relation to the companies formed.
It also provides trust services through its subsidiary trust companies in Panama, BVI and Belize.
After extensive documentation, Gabriella Investment Limited was born on November 17, 2010, with registration number 1615538. Two figureheads including ANTONY JANSE VAN VUUREN and LANCE LAWSON were appointed its first directors while ultimate control resided with Mr OBI.
On the same day the company was incorporated, the nominee Directors met and issued 50,000 shares of Gabriella Investment in favour of Hill International Holding Corporation, a shell International Business Company operating under the laws of Belize, another tax haven.
The Director of the company is Mr VAN VUUREN, also one of the Directors of Gabriella Investment.
It is unclear what businesses Mr OBI transacted with the entities but in some communications, they were sometimes referred to as investment vehicles. Mr OBI told inquiring Journalists that the offshore entity is the holding company for most of his assets and that the business structure he adapted was to enable him to avoid excessive taxation.
“I am sure you too will not like to pay inheritance tax if you can avoid it,” he told the reporters who interviewed him.
The Memorandum of Incorporation of Gabriella Investment said it was set up to carry on or undertake any business or activity, including trading of any commodities or goods, to do any act or enter into any transactions.
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