In July 2013, four months after Mizzi joined the Maltese government, an accounting firm in Malta bought several Panamanian companies from Mossack Fonseca, including Hearnville Inc. In June 2015, Mizzi established a trust in New Zealand that is the shareholder of Hearnville. The beneficiaries of this trust are his wife, who is Malta’s consul in Shanghai, and two children. In June 2015, Mizzi told Mossack Fonseca he would use Hearnville as a management consultancy and brokerage firm. On this last point, Mizzi said that he filled out a “standard category wording that was included in a template form which was part of the company acquisition process.”
JESÚS VILLANUEVA
Oil Company Executive – Venezuela
Jesus Villanueva rose swiftly within Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), the state oil company, after Hugo Chavez’s election as president in 1998. Villanueva served as general auditor, then as a director in 2002, later returning to auditor and then becoming a director again in 2005. A 2006 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission noted that since he was Audit Committee vice president and also the Audit Committee Financial Expert, Villanueva was not “independent” as defined by the New York Stock Exchange. He left the board in 2008, when Chavez replaced six directors but continued as auditor. Villanueva exposed in a 2009 PdVSA confidential memo cost problems with a nationwide food supply network created by Chavez and PdVSA; an audit revealed that only 25 per cent of the more than $2.2 million in food imports ordered by mid-2008 had reached Venezuela within six months after payment. PdVSA is currently the focus of a large U.S. investigation into graft, money laundering and other corruption.
In March 2009, Mossack Fonseca Luxembourg helped to incorporate Blue Sea Enterprises Corp. in Panama. The main purpose of the company was handling offshore savings accumulated by Villanueva, which were deposited in Swiss EFG Bank. Mossack Fonseca’s Luxembourg issued a power of attorney to Villanueva, giving him the right to authorize transactions. However, internal emails showed that the founders of the Panamanian law firm revoked his authority because of “a high risk on doing business with this person” as he had “direct access to the public treasury, and the origin of his funds” could be “questioned at any given moment,” so the probabilities of a scandal” were “higher.” They referred to him as “a total PEP” or politically exposed person. However, one of the company’s partners, Chris Zollinger, favoured continuing the business relationship with Villanueva. In January 2010, Mossack Fonseca skirted the PEP problem by granting power of attorney of Blue Sea to his daughter Anny Josefina Villanueva.
Villanueva’s daughter told Venezuelan media that she has a Panamanian company with “Blue” in the name. She declined to discuss any details or to say where her father is.
BRUNO JEAN-RICHARD ITOUA
Head of National Oil Company – Republic of Congo
Head of National Oil Company – Republic of Congo
Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua rose to power in the Republic of Congo through his family’s close association with President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, first serving as the president’s hydrocarbons adviser, then becoming head of the national oil company (SNPC) in 1998. Itoua was implicated in a massive diversion of company funds that came to light in 2003. A lawsuit two years later by one of Congo’s creditors accused Itoua and the SNPC of conspiring to “divert oil revenues … into the pockets of powerful Congolese public officials.” After a U.S. federal appeals court ruled in 2007 that American courts did not have jurisdiction over the suit against the SNPC because it was a government agency, the creditor did not pursue its case against Itoua.
Itoua had the power of attorney to represent two offshore companies in 2004, while he was energy adviser to the President of the Republic of Congo and CEO of SNPC, the Congolese national oil company. The companies, Denvest Capital Strategies Inc., based in the British Virgin Islands, and Grafin Associated SA, based in Panama, had previously issued unregistered shares, which belong to the person who physically holds them. The companies became inactive in 2006 and 2007 respectively, according to Mossack Fonseca’s records.
