The British banker Nigel Cowie,
who lived in North Korea for over two decades, allegedly set up an offshore
company used by Pyongyang to expand its nuclear weapons program and sell arms.
News of his involvement came to light
following Sunday’s leak of the Panama Papers, which have shed light on global
offshore finance arrangements. Cowie moved to North Korea in 1995, rising to
become head of Daedong Credit Bank (DCB), the country’s first foreign bank, the
Guardian reports. In 2006, he led a group of investors that bought a 70 percent
stake in the bank.
That same year, Cowie
registered an offshoot of DCB in the British Virgin Islands, which law firm
Mossack Fonseca incorporated.
In 2013, the U.S. imposed
sanctions on the company, claiming that it provided financial services to
institutions central to North Korea’s arms race. The offshoot also, the U.S.
alleges, carried out international financial transactions with countries trying
to avoid North Korea. Mossack Fonseca didn’t notice Cowie’s links to North
Korea—despite him giving an address there—until 2010 when he resigned as agent.
Cowie, who sold his stake in
the bank in 2011, has said via his lawyer that he was unaware of operating
“with any sanctioned organisation or for any sanctioned purpose, during his
tenure.”