Special Report: "Paradise Papers" On Outgoing President Of Liberia

President Ellen- Johnson Sirleaf

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has served as the president of Liberia since 2006. Before her presidency, Johnson Sirleaf was a director of Databank, a financial services provider based in the West African country of Ghana.


In The Data:
Johnson Sirleaf was listed as a director of the Bermuda company Songhai Financial Holdings Ltd. a subsidiary of Databank’s finance, fund management and investment company Databank Brokerage Ltd., from April 2001 until September 2012, according to Appleby’s files. Ken Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta, now Ghana’s finance minister, was a co-founder of Databank and a co-director, with Johnson Sirleaf, of Songhai Financial Holdings.

Response:
Stephen D. Cashin, chief executive of Pan African Capital and a board member of Databank, responded to a request for comment from Sirleaf-Johnson that Songhai was designed for offshore investors to invest in Ghana’s Databank and that Databank had no business in Liberia. Sirleaf-Johnson was elected to the board of Databank before being elected president, he told ICIJ, and she has no interest in Songhai or Databank. Cashin said Sirleaf-Johnson actually resigned from Songhai before her election campaign, but the resignation was “not effected” until 2012 due to “an administrative oversight” in Bermuda.

Courtesy: www.icij.org