Panama Papers: Theophilus Danjuma has offshore companies, secret bank account
– The offshore companies and secret account of Theophilus Danjuma, Nigeria’s retired army general and ex-defence minister, were exposed by Panama Papers
– Mr Danjuma is not available for comments, he ignores calls made to his mobile number and doesn’t respond to text messages
Theophilus Danjuma is a former Nigerian defense minister and the founder of oil exploration company South Atlantic Petroleum, which owns upstream assets in Nigeria, Republic of Benin, the Central African Republic and Madagascar.
A massive leak of the Mossac Fonseca documents, exposing corrupt world leaders, politicians, public officials and celebrities, clearly show that Mr Danjuma is one of them.
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According to the files, the multi-millionaire businessman is a long time user of offshore entities, including Eastcoast Investments Inc company. It was reportedly registered in Nassau, Bahamas, on March 25, 1997, with Mr. Danjuma and Colin Marcel Dixon acting as directors.
Premium Times alleges that the company was set up by to conduct business with Scancem International of Norway – the organisation seeking to expand its activities into Africa and Nigeria in particular.
However, on December 1, 2003, Scancem bought out Eastcoast Investment following a bribery scandal. Later it turned out that “the money went mainly to another account, Eastcoast Investment had, to General T.Y. Danjuma and a certain The Volta Company”.
Shortly afterwards Danjuma resigned as a director of the company but no documents proving he sold or transferred his shares were discovered. Satish Chander Dosaj took his place and after his death Elizabeth Dixon, most likely Mr Dixon’s wife, was registered as a director.
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Mr Danjuma had also been linked to several other shadow companies: Cross Group Holdings International, which was registered in Panama on October 15, 1976; Zara Logistics, a company registered in Cyprus on September 2, 1993. It is yet to determine for what hidden financial dealings the offshore entities were established.
Besides, the retired general was found to have a secret international bank account with the Swiss branch of banking giant, HSBC. Meanwhile, reporters are calling Mr Danjuma to comment on the recent controversial investigation.
More details at Premium Times.
Mr Danjuma legally owns real estate plus a stake in Notore Chemical Industries, a manufacturer of urea fertilizer, as well as a stake in NALComet, one of Nigeria’s largest shipping companies. His net worth (around $750 million, according to Forbes) fell from a year ago due to the sustained weakness in oil prices.
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