Nov 18, 2019, 13:20 pm
(This post was last modified: Nov 18, 2019, 13:23 pm by Resurgence. Edited 1 time in total.)
WikiLeaks has recently published over 30,000 documents (the first of two batches) it has obtained from a whistleblower within SAMHERJI, a multinational fishing company based in Iceland. They expose corrupt schemes by the company in Namibia to gain access to rich fishing grounds off the African country’s shores.
The documents are dated from 2010 to 2016, the period during which the company gained its foothold in Namibia. SAMHERJI has now become the biggest single recipient of fishing quotas in the country. The documents (which include e-mails, internal reports, spreadsheets, presentations and photos) expose how the company spent millions of dollars in pay-offs to senior Namibian officials and politicians in order to ensure growing and continued access to the country's resources.
It also exposes that lofty promises by SAMHERJI, to build infrastructure in the country and create jobs, were never fulfilled. On the contrary, the company used its international corporate structure to transfer proceeds from the operations straight out of the country. This was done through intermediaries it controls in Cyprus and in the tax-haven of Mauritius.
Today’s released files also demonstrate how these same tools were used to transfer funds to a secret account, set up by SAMHERJI in Dubai, for the sole purpose of transferring kick-backs to the corrupt entities in Namibia.
SAMHERJI currently has operations in Iceland, Germany, Poland, U.K., the Faroe Islands, Canada, France, Spain, Portugal as well as Namibia. The company has been fast-growing in the last two decades and has a turnover in the excess of $700 million.
The documents were provided by Mr. Jóhannes Stefánsson, the former Managing Director of SAMHERJI´s operations in Namibia. He has decided to come forward as a whistleblower and testify about the activities of the company. Mr. Stefánsson is also cooperating with anti-corruption authorities and police in Namibia, who have been investigating the case for close to a year. The Namibian authorities have sought assistance with the investigation from their counterparts in Dubai, Mauritius, Cyprus, Norway and Iceland. The reason for Norway’s involvement is that some of the Cyprus-based companies belonging to SAMHERJI used Norwegian bank accounts to transfer funds.
The first part of the release is published by WikiLeaks in conjunction with reporting by both WikiLeaks and its media partners, Kveikur, the investigative unit of the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RUV), the Icelandic newspaper Stundin, and the Namibian daily The Namibian. The second part of the release is expected in 2-3 weeks when Al-Jazeera and other media partners will publish their findings.
https://wikileaks.org/fishrot/
The documents are dated from 2010 to 2016, the period during which the company gained its foothold in Namibia. SAMHERJI has now become the biggest single recipient of fishing quotas in the country. The documents (which include e-mails, internal reports, spreadsheets, presentations and photos) expose how the company spent millions of dollars in pay-offs to senior Namibian officials and politicians in order to ensure growing and continued access to the country's resources.
It also exposes that lofty promises by SAMHERJI, to build infrastructure in the country and create jobs, were never fulfilled. On the contrary, the company used its international corporate structure to transfer proceeds from the operations straight out of the country. This was done through intermediaries it controls in Cyprus and in the tax-haven of Mauritius.
Today’s released files also demonstrate how these same tools were used to transfer funds to a secret account, set up by SAMHERJI in Dubai, for the sole purpose of transferring kick-backs to the corrupt entities in Namibia.
SAMHERJI currently has operations in Iceland, Germany, Poland, U.K., the Faroe Islands, Canada, France, Spain, Portugal as well as Namibia. The company has been fast-growing in the last two decades and has a turnover in the excess of $700 million.
The documents were provided by Mr. Jóhannes Stefánsson, the former Managing Director of SAMHERJI´s operations in Namibia. He has decided to come forward as a whistleblower and testify about the activities of the company. Mr. Stefánsson is also cooperating with anti-corruption authorities and police in Namibia, who have been investigating the case for close to a year. The Namibian authorities have sought assistance with the investigation from their counterparts in Dubai, Mauritius, Cyprus, Norway and Iceland. The reason for Norway’s involvement is that some of the Cyprus-based companies belonging to SAMHERJI used Norwegian bank accounts to transfer funds.
The first part of the release is published by WikiLeaks in conjunction with reporting by both WikiLeaks and its media partners, Kveikur, the investigative unit of the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RUV), the Icelandic newspaper Stundin, and the Namibian daily The Namibian. The second part of the release is expected in 2-3 weeks when Al-Jazeera and other media partners will publish their findings.
https://wikileaks.org/fishrot/
