One of the most popular pastors in Africa, Rev. Chris Oyakhilome , family and associates has been linked by a secret document to an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands.
Rev. Chris 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.
A business associate of the pastor says some directors in the company known as Gmobile held shares on behalf of the pastor’s daughters, Sharon and Charlyn, who are now teenagers.
Gmobile Nigeria
Limited is 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.
He has a 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. 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.”
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 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.”.
Source: Premium Times
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