Panama Papers: David Cameron discloses tax records as £200,000 gift from mother comes under scrutiny
Demonstrators hold placards during a protest outside Downing Street in Whitehall, central London, Britain April 9, 2016. British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Saturday said he should have handled scrutiny of his family’s tax arrangements better and promised to learn the lessons after days of negative media coverage and calls for his resignation. Photo by Neil Hall/Reuters
Prime Minister David Cameron has released his tax records in the aftermath of the Panama Papers revelations, but questions are being raised over a £200,000 ($282,500) gift he received from his mother. According to the figures disclosed by the prime minister, he paid more than £76,000 in tax on his income, which exceeded £200,000 in 2014-15. While he earned close to £47,000 from rental income on the Camerons’ family home in London, he also received taxable expenses of £9,834 from the Tory party, and interest from his savings amounted to £3,052.
Cameron’s mother transferred two separate payments of £100,000 as gifts shortly after the death of his father, Ian Cameron, in 2011. This has allowed the family estate to potentially avoid paying up to £80,000 in inheritance tax, given Cameron’s mother lives for another two years – seven years from the date of inheritance. Cameron also inherited £300,000 from his father in 2010.
The Conservative leader said he wants to be “completely open and transparent” by publishing his personal tax records.
Downing Street published the personal financial details of the prime minister to end questions regarding Cameron’s financial affairs. Questions have been raised whether the prime minister had benefited from the Blairmore Holdings, an offshore fund operated by his late father.
The details about Ian’s dealings emerged in the explosive Panama Papers. The leak of confidential documents from the Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, has put several world leaders in a tight spot.
The prime minister’s four-page document was compiled by RNS Chartered Accountants covering six years. Although the Panama Papers show no direct wrongdoing by Cameron, questions regarding his financial affairs have been raised. He has issued four statements in the last week clarifying how his father’s name surfacing in the leaked documents.
Mossack Fonseca director Ramon Fonseca has denied any wrongdoing. He said the firm had suffered a hack on its database and described the leak as “an international campaign against privacy”, according to Reuters.
All of those implicated in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICJI) Panama Papers report have been afforded the opportunity to respond. Visit the ICJI’s website to read the responses.
Panama Papers heap pressure on Nigeria Senate chief facing trial
Saraki is alleged to have failed to declare at least four offshore assets listed under his wife Toyin’s name that appear in the leaked documents, according to the investigation’s media partner Nigerian newspaper Premium Times.
Lagos (AFP) – Embattled Nigerian Senate president Bukola Saraki on Tuesday brushed off allegations of wrongdoing concerning his wife’s offshore assets revealed in the Panama Papers, as he went on trial in Abuja on fraud charges.
The latest graft claim to hit the senate president emerged from the “Panama Papers” investigation into a trove of 11.5 million tax documents leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which specialises in creating offshore shell companies.
Saraki is alleged to have failed to declare at least four offshore assets listed under his wife Toyin’s name that appear in the leaked documents, according to the investigation’s media partner Nigerian newspaper Premium Times.
Under Nigerian law, it is mandatory for the president, the vice-president, state governors and their deputies to declare their assets along with those of their wife and children under 18 when they take office and before stepping down.
But Saraki said he did not do anything illegal and argued that the assets are listed as part of his wife’s “family estate”.
“I’ve fully complied with (the) law on asset declaration,” Saraki said in a statement issued on Monday and posted on his website.
“The law does not require a public officer to declare assets held by the spouse’s family,” Saraki’s spokesman Yusuph Olaniyonu said.
“It is public knowledge that Mrs Saraki comes from a family of independent means and wealth with numerous and varied assets acquired over decades in family estates and investments.”
– Huge payments –
Saraki’s corruption trial finally got under way before the Code of Conduct Tribunal in Abuja on Tuesday after months of delays.
He faces charges including false declaration of assets while he was governor of the western state of Kwara from 2003 to 2011, all charges that he denies.
Michael Wetkas, head of the team that investigated Saraki at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, took the stand as the first prosecution witness, telling the court Saraki had made massive payments into private company accounts.
He used the deposits to repay personal loans from a local commercial bank and purchased property in Nigeria and abroad, Wetkas said.
Wetkas also said Saraki had laundered money through his British and US Bank accounts and failed to properly declare most of the assets.
Between 2005 and 2013, his Nigerian account had a total inflow and outflow of up to 4 billion naira ($20 million, 17.6 million euros), Wetkas said, with the local bank loan being the major source of the inflow.
A trained physician and former banker, the senate president is considered Nigeria’s third most senior politician behind President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
Yet anti-corruption campaigners fear that the powerful politician will, like others before him, outmanoeuvre the law.
“The latest revelation about Saraki’s family should not surprise anybody,” Debo Adeniran, chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders lobby group, told AFP of the Panama Papers leaks.
“We suggest that the Nigerian anti-graft agencies should collaborate with their foreign partners to move against Saraki and make him accountable,” Adeniran added.
“If Saraki escapes the Nigerian laws because of the loopholes and leniency in our laws, the international community should not allow him to escape.
“He should get the Ibori’s treatment,” Adeniran said, referring to the case of former Delta state governor James Ibori who was acquited in Nigeria on corruption charges but jailed in London for a similar offence.
Several high-profile politicians are currently standing trial as part of Buhari’s drive to tackle endemic corruption in Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude producer and biggest economy.
Rawal, the Deputy Chief Justice and Deputy President of Kenya’s Supreme Court, has been linked to as many as 11 offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands by the leak.
The massive leak of confidential documents described as the Panama Papers has got a lot of politicians and world leaders hot under the collar.
The leak of more than 11.5 million documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca—obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with more than 100 other news organizations—is the biggest data leak in history. The documents show how 143 politicians, including 12 national leaders, have used offshore tax havens and other means to avoid tax and sanctions. While the use of offshore facilities is not in itself a crime, the leak could have devastating consequences for many—the Australian Tax Office is investigating more than 800 people for possible tax evasion, while world leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson may also have questions to answer.
Here, Newsweek considers five of the African personalities who have been caught up in the scandal.
1. South Africa: President Jacob Zuma’s nephew
The papers name the nephew of embattled South African President Jacob Zuma, Khulubuse Zuma, as a representative of Caprikat Limited—one of two offshore companies that acquired oilfields in Democratic Republic of Congo in a 100 million rand ($6.8 million) deal in 2010. Caprikat is registered in the British Virgin Islands, the main offshore tax haven involved in the Panama Papers.
Khulubuse’s spokesperson Vuyo Mkhize said on Monday that “Khulubuse does not, and has never held any offshore bank account” and that the Panama Papers simply suggested he was associated with Caprikat, which was a matter of public record.
2. Kenya: Kalpana Rawal, the country’s second-highest judge
Rawal, the Deputy Chief Justice and Deputy President of Kenya’s Supreme Court, has been linked to as many as 11 offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands by the leak. The judge was a director or shareholder of four companies while her husband, Hasmukhrai, held the same position in seven other companies, Kenya’s Daily Nation reported. Three of the companies were used to buy and sell property in the U.K.
The judge has denied any wrongdoing and stated that the practice of registering and running businesses in tax havens is a “perfectly legal and legitimate corporate practice in the U.K.,” where her family are involved in the real estate business.
3. Nigeria: James Ibori, the jailed ex-governor of Nigeria’s oil hub
Ibori was linked to four offshore companies by the Panama Papers link, one of which—named Stanhope Investments—was used to open a Swiss bank account, into which funds were channeled for the purchase of a $20 million private jet.
Ibori served as the governor of Nigeria’s Delta state—a center of the West African country’s vital oil and gas industry —between 1999 and 2007. He was convicted in 2012 for fraud, totaling nearly £50 million ($77 million at the time) by a London court following a complicated extradition procedure after he evaded arrest by Nigerian authorities and fled to Dubai. Ibori is currently serving a 13-year prison sentence in the U.K.
Ibori was linked to four offshore companies by the Panama Papers link, one of which—named Stanhope Investments—was used to open a Swiss bank account, into which funds were channeled for the purchase of a $20 million private jet.
4. Democratic Republic of Congo: The president’s twin sister
The twin sibling of Congolese President Joseph Kabila, Jaynet Désirée Kabila Kyungu, has been a member of parliament in the vast Central African country since 2012. Kyungu, who is also the daughter of assassinated ex-Congolese president Laurent Kabila, also runs a media company called Digital Congo, which has TV, radio and internet wings.
She is linked to Keratsu Holding Limited, a company incorporated in the Pacific island of Niue in June 2001, months before her brother was elected as the president of Democratic Republic of Congo. Kyungu has yet to comment on the allegations.
5. Angola: The oil-rich country’s petroleum minister
José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos has twice served as Angola’s petroleum minister, between 1999 and 2002 and again from 2008 until present. He also served as president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2009. Angola is Africa’s second-biggest oil producer behind Nigeria, churning out 1.8 million barrels per day according to 2014 data from the U.S. Department of Energy.
According to the Panama Papers, Botelho de Vasconcelos was listed as one of two individuals with power of attorney for Medea Investments Limited, which was founded in 2001 in Niue. Botelho de Vasconcelos is yet to respond to the leak.
