Botswana court judge named in #PanamaPapers

Justice Ian Kirby was named as one of dozens of shareholders of 7 British Virgin Islands companies which were helped by Mossack Fonseca.

Gaborone - The President of the Botswana Court of Appeal, Justice Ian Kirby, has been named as one of the dozens of shareholders in seven British Virgin Islands-registered off-shore companies which were helped by Panamaian law firm Mossack Fonseca to use tax havens to hide their wealth.

According to information on the scandal, now known as the “Panama Papers”, the firms in which Kirby was involved held vast amounts of shares in offshore companies which held properties and had interests in commercial real estate in the United Kingdom.

“(Ian) Kirby was one of dozens of shareholders of seven British Virgin Islands companies. He first appeared in documents sent to Mossack Fonseca as a shareholder of Bellbrook Estates Limited in May 2005, while Kirby was attorney general of Botswana.

“Bellbrook Estates Limited carried out unspecified activities in the United Kingdom, according to a 2014 list by Mossack Fonseca of active companies for which it served as registered agent. Although specific details of the offshore companies in which Kirby held shares are not available, at least three of those BVI firms held properties, including commercial real estate, in the United Kingdom,” reads part of the Panama Papers published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

According to the ICIJ, Kirby has not denied being involved with the said offshore companies but says he and his wife were “persuaded” to invest portions of their savings in the hope of getting returns that would keep their investments “ahead” of inflation.

He told the ICIJ that most of the investments failed, although he still has interests in “one or two” of the seven companies in question.

“One or two have worked out, but most not, because the worldwide recession intervened. Overall we have lost most of our investment,” Kirby told the ICIJ.

The “Panama Papers” expose revealed how the rich and powerful, including 72 current and former heads of state, were helped by Mossack Fonseca to launder money, dodge sanctions and evade paying taxes.

However, the ICIJ has cautioned that the report, which covers what Mossack and Fonseca has done for high-level clients over the past 40 year, does not in any way mean that those mentioned engaged in illegal activities as there were many legitimate users of offshores companies, foundations and trusts.

In South Africa, the papers have exposed the involvement of President Jacob Zuma's nephew Khulubuse who was apparently “authorised to represent Caprikat Limited, one of two offshore companies that controversially acquired oil fields in the Democratic Republic of Congo”.

African News Agency