In his native Niger State, David Umaru, the All Progressives Congress
senator representing Niger East Senatorial District is something of a
folk hero.
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| David Umaru |
He was a thorn under the skin of the immediate past administration of Governor Mu’azu BabangidaAliyu.
He was an unwavering critic and soon gained the reputation of a
whistleblower after be published series of advertorials in national
newspapers exposing alleged corrupt practices by the Mu’azu Babangida
administration.
But one aspect of his life Mr Umaru would hesitate
to see on the pages of newspapers is his dealings in notorious offshore
tax havens and his role in laundering money for the country’s most
notorious dictator ever, Sani Abacha.
Documents from the
leaked database of now infamous Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca,
revealed that Mr Umaru incorporated two shell companies in the British
Virgin Islands (BVI), a notorious offshore tax haven, and in tiny South Pacific Ocean country, Niue Island.
The first company, Yorkshire Investment Limited was incorporated on
April 27, 1998 with a registered address at No2 Commercial Centre
Square, Alofi, the capital of the Niue Island.
The company was incorporated by International Trust Company (ITC), a
Niue-based registering agent. In other to conceal the true ownership of
the shell company, ITC provided two nominee directors for the company –
Melvin Scales (Chairman) and Ramses Owens.
But Mr Umaru was clearly named the true and lawful attorney of the company.
The appointment of nominee directors for shell companies is a common
practice in tax havens. The practice involved the appointment of
directors only by title. They have no real authority over the company
which they supposedly represent and can only act according to the
directives of the owners of the firm or that of the person with a power
of attorney.
“Know all men by these presents that on this 27th day of April, 1998,
we, YORKSHIRE INVESTMENT LTD, whose registered office is situated at 2
Commercial Centre Square, Alofi, Niue (hereinafter referred to as “the
Company “) have made, constituted and appointed, and by these presents
do hereby make, constitute and appoint Mr. David UMARU (hereinafter
referred to as “the Attorney”) as our true and lawful Attorney—in—fact
for us and in our name, place and stead, to do, execute and perform all
and every act or acts in law needful and necessary to be done in and
about and in relation, but not limited to, the following matters: “To negotiate, conclude, sign, execute and deliver on behalf of the
Company such conveyances, transfers, assignments, deeds, documents,
licenses, authorities or agreements as said Attorney shall consider
necessary or proper to enable it to dispose of or acquire any assets in
any part of the world (hereinafter referred to as “the assets”) on such
terms as the Attorney shall consider proper or desirable in his absolute
discretion,” the company’s article of incorporation read.
Not satisfied by the incorporation of his first shell company, five
months later, exactly on September 15, 1998, Mr. Umaru again went
shopping for his second shell company – Darweng Holding.
This time he decided to incorporate it in the British Virgin Islands.
Just like he did with Yorkshire Investment Ltd, Mr Umaru appointed
Benerly Hunt and Darlene Bayne as the company’s nominee directors while
he retained a full power of attorney, which gave him absolute power to
“negotiate, conclude, sign, execute and. deliver on behalf of the
Company such conveyances, transfers, assignments, deeds, documents,
licenses, authorities or agreements as said Attorney shall consider
necessary or proper to enable it to dispose of or acquire any assets in
any part of the world (hereinafter referred to as ‘the assets’).”
There is no evidence that Mr Umaru was no longer involved with the shell companies before he was elected a senator.
While not all owners or operators of such offshore entities are
criminals, owning or maintaining interest in private companies while
serving as public officials is against Nigerian laws.
Section 6(b) of the Code of Conduct Act says a public office holder
shall not, “except where he is not employed on full‐time basis, engage
or participate in the management or running of any private business,
profession or trade.”
This revelation makes Mr Umaru the fourth serving Nigerian senator,
after Senate President Bukola Saraki, his predecessor, David Mark, and
Senator Andy Uba, who have been shown to own shell companies in offshore
tax havens in clear violation of the country’s law.
Abacha’s bagman
It is unclear what businesses Mr. Umaru transacted with his offshore companies.
But shortly before he ran the companies, Mr. Umaru, who is currently
the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Human Rights and Legal Matters,
helped the Abacha family to move huge funds around.
An affidavit filed in November 18, 2013 by the US Department of
Justice in a suit seeking the forfeiture of assets worth over $500
million stolen by Mr Abacha and hidden in various in bank accounts in
various offshore jurisdiction, revealed how Mr Umaru acted as the
official extortionist and money launderer of the Abachas.
As part of a ploy to extort money from foreign companies, the Abacha
regime stopped paying foreign companies for contracts executed. One of
sure companies was a French Civil Engineering firm, Dumez Group. The
Abacha regime owed the company $469 million it refused to pay. In fact,
even after the company nationalized and became Dumez Nigeria Limited,
the junta still would not release the funds.
Enter Mr. Umaru. The senator, who was then a personal lawyer for the
Abachas, approached the owners of Dumez and told them payment could be
restarted if they agreed to a 25 per cent kickback of whatever they were
paid to the Abacha family. The company agreed.
Mr Umaru then incorporated Allied Network Ltd for the sole purpose of
collecting the kickbacks on behalf of the Abacha family. Listed as
directors of the company were “Mohammed Sani” and “Abba Sani”, which
were aliases of Sani Abacha and his brother, Abba Abacha.
In December 1996, Mr. Umaru opened an account on behalf of Allied
Network Ltd at the Union Bancaire Privee (UBP) in Geneva, Switzerland,
which was used to receive the payment of the kickbacks from Dumez and
another account at the same bank which was used to receive the payment
from the Nigerian government.
According to court papers, between August 16, 1996 and May 22, 1998,
the Central Bank of Nigeria transferred $389,737,400 to Dumez account at
UBP, Geneva. Of that amount $97,375,543 or 25 per cent of the original
payment was transferred by Dumez to Allied Network Ltd account in the
same bank.
In late 1997, Mohammed Abacha, the son of the late dictator,
authorised the transfer of $11,114,983, being part of the kickback
received from Dumez, to an account held by “Mohammed Sani” (Mohammed
Sani is the preferred alias of the younger Mr Abacha). He used the alias
repeatedly in most of the money laundering transactions involving his
family, including the infamous Malabu Oil deal) at Midland Bank London
(Now HSBC Bank Plc) with account number 38175076.
The money was later distributed into two accounts also held by
Mohammed Sani in the US via a network of several financial institutions.
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