Pastor Chris Oyakhilome…His wife and associates had their hands in a pie in a tax haven
A business associate of the pastor says some directors in the company held shares on behalf of the pastor’s daughters, Sharon and Charlyn, who are now teenagers.
The company in question is Gmobile
Nigeria Limited, an offshore firm incorporated in 2007 in a Caribbean
tax haven, the British Virgin Islands, according to a cache of documents
reviewed by Premium Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(ICIJ). The shareholders listed in the documents include Oyakhilome’s
wife, Anita; another pastor in his organization, Thomas Amenkhienan; a
business associate, Aigobomian Inegbedion; and another British Virgin
Islands’ company, GTMT International Group Limited.
Oyakhilome is founder and president of one of Africa’s largest Pentecostal churches, Believers Loveworld Inc. (aka Christ Embassy),
which claims “hundreds of churches … affecting millions of people” in
all the continents of the world, with a strong presence in the United
Kingdom, South Africa, United States, Canada and Nigeria. He has also set up satellite broadcast channels in the United Kingdom (LoveWorld TV), South Africa (LoveWorld SAT) and Nigeria (LoveWorld Plus). He hosts a TV show, Atmosphere for Miracles, which airs on television networks in Africa, North America, Australia, Asia and Europe, according to his church’s website.
Chris & Anita Oyakhilome… They had their hands in a pie in a tax haven
His church has a series of business
interests, the website says, that include vibrant TV and Internet
ministries and a publishing outfit that churns out the popular “Rhapsody
of Realities” booklet, which is like a second Bible to members of his
church.
He is as controversial as he is
entrepreneurial. Critics believe he is excessively flamboyant, dressing
most of the time in expensive suits, top-of-the-range shirts and ties
and exotic shoes.
Some of his critics have alleged that he
has staged miracles, bringing forth impotent men, infertile women and
people with AIDS who testified they’d been instantly healed. In the wake
of controversy over faith-healing practices by Oyakhilome and other
pastors, the Nigerian government banned unverified miracles from
television in 2004.
His wife, Anita, is also a pastor in the
church. She heads the international division of the ministry and is
regularly credited with growing the church’s presence around the world.
Until now, there has never been any suggestion that she was involved in financial dealings.
Documents
reviewed by ICIJ and Premium Times show that Anita Oyakhihome held 17,
750 of Gmobile’s 50,000 shares, with Amenkhienan owning 1,500 and
Inegbedion 750. The fourth shareholder, GTMT International, also a
British Virgin Islands’ company, owned by South African investors, held
30,000 shares.
The documents show that some of these
individuals held shares in trust for two minors. The records don’t
identify the minors, but Inegbedion confirmed that the minors referred
to in the documents were the Oyakhilomes’ daughters, quickly adding that
there was nothing wrong with that.
“Their parents bought the shares for
them because they have rights to own shares,” Mr. Inegbedion said. “A
day-old child has a right to own shares in companies.” He declined to
say which of Gmobile directors held shares in trust for the girls.
The Oyakhilomes did not respond to emails sent to their personal and church websites.
Setting Up Gmobile
In 2007 Anita Oyakhilome and her
partners retained the services of a Dubai-based company, Covenant
Management Consultancy (CML), to help it register Gmobile Nigeria
Limited in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), a Caribbean chain largely
controlled by the United Kingdom. On June 26, 2007, CML in turn
approached BVI-based Commonwealth Trust Limited (CTL) to complete the
task of setting an offshore company.
After some preliminaries — including name checks and consultation with lawyers — CML’s Susha George wrote
to CTL’s Shonia Mathew on July 3 giving her the go-ahead to incorporate
Gmobile. In that same two-paragraph message, George informed CTL “two
shareholders of this company are minors.” She also asked whether
additional documents or procedures were needed for the minors to be
owners of the company.
Mathew replied the same day, saying that shares of the company could only be held in trust for the minors.
“Please note if the beneficial owners
are minors, then the shares would need to be held in Trust for them
until they are of age to act in that capacity,” she wrote, adding that
“it may be wise to contact an attorney regarding the formalities of the
company.”
Aig Inegbedion…. “Nothing wrong with the Oyakhilome girls holding shares”.
Seven days after Gmobile’s incorporation, company records show, shares were issued to Anita Oyakhilome, Amenkhienan, Inegbedion and GTMT Limited, a BVI company.
Another curious aspect of the company,
which became dormant on May 1, 2009, was the makeup of its board of
directors. Its first director was not a human being but another offshore
company, Covenant Managers Limited, an offshore firm also set up by
Dubai-based Covenant Consultancy Limited in July 2005 to offer nominee
services to corporations and individuals incorporating companies in the
BVI. In the offshore world, nominee directors or shareholders serve as
stand-ins that allow the real people behind companies to keep their
identities hidden.
As first director, Covenant Managers
approved the opening of a bank account in the United Arab Emirates or
any other place in the world. It is not known in which bank the account
was eventually opened nor whether it was used to move funds.
After Covenant Managers officially
resigned, GTMT directors were brought on board together with Anita
Oyakhilome, Inegbedion and Amenkhienan as directors.
They were Willem Johannes Jacobus Van Der Merwe, Karen Ann Smith and
Daniel John William Mills. Reporting by Premium Times determined that
Van Der Merwe, Smith and Mills were based in South Africa but we could
not ascertain how they came to be associated with the Oyakhilome clan.
Inegbedion said the idea of
incorporating Gmobile in a tax haven was suggested by the South
Africans, who he said argued that BVI was an ideal neutral ground for
the business partnership the Oyakhilomes were forging with GTMT to carry
out the business of distributing data compression software in Nigeria.
“We were looking for a neutral ground
where both parties could feel safe,” Inegbedion said in a telephone
interview. “So we had to go to British Virgin Islands. But it was our
partners who handled the registration.”
The only South African partner Premium
Times was able to track down, Karen Ann Smith, declined to comment on
the formation and businesses of Gmobile. “You are on the wrong trip,
guy, as I’m not interested in talking about that business,” Mrs. Smith
said on telephone. When she was pressed for details, she said, “You are
wasting my time, as I have no interest in speaking to you.”
Fleeting Appearance
Gmobile does not appear to have carried
out any business in Nigeria, South Africa or the BVI. Inegbedion and
another individual who identified himself as Danny Mills made a fleeting
appearance before journalists in Lagos in October 2007,
almost four months after Gmobile was registered in the BVI, to say the
firm was unveiling a GMobile product which allows users to maximize data
storage and make an array of communications and services possible.
Danny Mills was introduced as the
international sales director of Gmobile, while Inegbedion was introduced
as chief operating officer of an unknown firm, LW GNet Nigeria.
Apparently, nothing has been heard of that product since that event. Today, Inegbedion introduces himself on his Facebook page
as managing director of Paradigm Biz Solution Limited, a company the
Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission also says does not exist in its
database.
Remmy Nweke, a well-regarded Lagos-based
communications reporter, was among those who covered Gmobile’s press
conference at the time. “Well, they came and met the media and said they
were rolling out an irresistible product,” Mr. Nweke said via
telephone. “But that was the last we heard of them. They simply
disappeared.”
Inegbedion said Gmobile was unable to
roll out the product because the company’s partners in South Africa
failed to deliver after his team, led by Anita Oyakhilome, paid $1.8
million for a distribution license.
To all appearances, Gmobile was simply a
failed business venture. But other companies incorporated in tax havens
such as the BVI have become known for involvement with illegal
activities, including money laundering and tax evasion.
Pastor Tom Amenkhiena… spiritual and business partner of the Oyakhilomes
Taking advantage of the loose laws in
several jurisdictions, offshore companies are easy to form in tax havens
and owners can remain anonymous while using nominee directors as fronts
and deploying the corporations to hide ill-gotten assets, launder
funds, dodge litigation or evade taxes. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, for
example, was convicted of stealing public funds while he was governor of
the oil-rich Nigerian state of Bayelsa. The state recovered more than
17 million British pounds from him, including assets he held through
Solomon and Peters Limited (a company registered in the BVI) and
Santolina Investment Corp. (a company incorporated in the Seychelles).
Last month, he received a presidential pardon. 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. Audu denies the
allegations.
Dealing with a questionable firm
The BVI Financial Services Commission found CTL,
the offshore services firm that helped the Oyakhilomes to incorporate
Gmobile, to be in repeated violation of the BVI’s anti-money laundering
law between 2003 and 2008.
The BVI offices of offshore services company CTL. Photo: Alex Shprintsen
Thomas Ward, a co-founder of CTL who has
worked as a consultant to the firm since it was sold to the new owners
in 2009, said the company worked hard to make sure it didn’t take on
shady clients.
“We believe we chose our clients
carefully and we believe they honoured their agreements with us,” he
said. But at times CTL’s staff was “either deceived or previously honest
customers changed.”
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