A nephew of South African
President Jacob Zuma and the son of Ghana's former president John Agyekum
Kufuor were among African figures named in the Panama Papers trove of leaked
tax documents. Zuma's nephew, Clive Khulubuse
Zuma, is a cigar-chomping mining magnate who is thought to own up to 19
collectible cars.
The documents from Panamanian
law firm Mossack Fonseca show that Khulubuse Zuma was authorised to represent
Caprikat Limited, one of two offshore companies that controversially acquired
oil fields in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In 2010, as questions were
raised about the acquisition, British Virgin Islands authorities ordered
Mossack Fonseca to provide additional background information on Zuma. Later
that year, Mossack Fonseca ended its relationship with the companies.
Zuma and representatives of the
companies have rejected allegations of wrongdoing and claimed the oil deals are
"quite attractive" to the DRC government.
Also implicated is John Addo
Kufuor, the eldest son of Ghana's former president John Agyekum Kufuor, who led
the country from 2001 to 2009.
A trained accountant, the
younger Kufuor is said in the documents to have controlled a $75,000 bank
account in Panama for his father and his mother that he ran through an offshore
company. He did not respond to the ICIJ's requests for comment.
The son of Congolese President
Denis Sassou Nguesso also appears in the Mossack Fonseca files, in the 1990s.
Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso
is said to have approached Mossack Fonseca about setting up a company based in
the British Virgin Islands, called Phoenix Best Finance, according to the
French daily Le Monde, which is one of the media partners for the release of
the documents.
Sassou Nguesso told Le Monde he
did not know the law firm and had no knowledge of Phoenix Best Finance.
The documents were first
obtained by German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung a year ago, led by the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and involving more than
100 publications from nearly 80 countries.