Rev. Chris Oyakhilome's Secrets
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
