Liberia’s Sirleaf, Mahama’s brother named in Paradise Papers

    Liberia’s outgoing president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Ibrahim Mahama, brother of former Ghanaian President were all mentioned in the Paradise Papers, that exposed the offshore interests and activities of more than 120 politicians and world leaders, including Queen Elizabeth II, and 13 advisers, major donors and members of U.S. President Donald J. Trump.

    Just like the Panama Papers, the Paradise Papers that were skimmed from the files of a law group, Appleby, were published on Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, ICIJ. The two Africans, along with the foreign minister of Uganda and President of the Nigerian Senate, Bukola Saraki, have all denied any wrongdoing in opening the offshore accounts.

   In 2013, according to the report, Ibrahim Mahama’s representatives and his contracting company Engineers and Planners Company Limited contacted Appleby about creating two offshore companies in the Isle of Man but ended up creating only one. That company, Red Sky Aviation Limited, was used to hold a $7 million Bombardier Challenger jet. The second company was intended for “consulting services in the oil and gas mining infrastructure development and real estate sectors of the Ghanaian economy.”

   Appleby ranked Mahama and his companies as a high risk due to his relationship to the then-president and allegations in local media that government funds were being used to repay the company’s multimillion-dollar bank loan. Mahama’s company has denied any wrongdoing. Ghanaian media have reported recently that Mahama, the CEO of Engineers & Planners Company Limited, is under investigation by Ghana’s economic and organized crimes office for allegedly issuing bad checks. In 2016, Ghanaian authorities took Mahama’s company to court for allegedly not paying social security payments to staff; the case was later settled.

   Liberia’s outgoing President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf popped up in the Appleby records as a director of Databank, a financial services provider based in Ghana. Johnson Sirleaf who became Liberia’s president in 2006, was listed as a director of the Bermuda company Songhai Financial Holdings Ltd. a subsidiary of Databank’s finance, fund management and investment company Databank Brokerage Ltd., from April 2001 until September 2012, according to Appleby’s files. Ken Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta, now Ghana’s finance minister, was a co-founder of Databank and a co-director, with Johnson Sirleaf, of Songhai Financial Holdings.

   Stephen D. Cashin, chief executive of Pan African Capital and a board member of Databank, responded to a request for comment from Sirleaf-Johnson that Songhai was designed for offshore investors to invest in Ghana’s Databank and that Databank had no business in Liberia.  Johnson Sirleaf was elected to the board of Databank before being elected president, he told ICIJ, and she has no interest in Songhai or Databank. Cashin said Sirleaf-Johnson actually resigned from Songhai before her election campaign, but the resignation was “not effected” until 2012 due to “an administrative oversight” in Bermuda.