A Malta resident found guilty of embezzling millions from oil giants Elf was deemed to be a reputational risk for Panama firm Mossack Fonseca, documents from the Panama Papers show.
The late Andrè Guelfi, a French millionaire and one-time Formula One driver, was embroiled in a number of scandals involving French and German politicians.
Panama firm Mossack Fonseca viewed Malta resident Andrè Guelfi as a risk due to his colourful past.The Panama company began to worry about Mr Guelfi in 2010 when it flagged that one of his companies, Umbrella International Ltd, had been transferred from an agent in the British Virgin Islands to Mossack Fonseca in Luxembourg. Mossack Fonseca suspected that the previous agents, Midocean, knew of Mr Guelfi’s history.
“The recent transfer in to us [sic] from Midocean of this company indicates that they are aware of this information and maybe more. Given the nature of our findings and the fact this company was recently transferred to us, we suggest that we resign immediately as registered agents of the company,” an e-mail from a Mossack Fonseca compliance officer read.
The compliance officer noted that Mr Guelfi had reportedly used the company to launder funds from Elf to the German Christian Democratic Union.
He noted the millionaire had been sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for 18 months, and fined €1.5 million.
Mossack Fonseca’s e-mail contains allegations of wrongdoing by both Mr Guelfi’s and Elf.
“Mr Guelfi was a negotiator for Elf Aquitaine. It is his connection with the company, Elf, that apparently has landed him in this position as persons involved with the company were accused of ‘accepting nearly €400 million for personal enrichment and political kickbacks in the late 1980s and early 1990s,” the e-mail read.
The e-mail reports allegations that Elf was used to maintain “Paris-friendly dictators in African states and has routinely served as a cover for secret French governmental operations, which included bribing of African leaders and money laundering in Latin America”.
We suggest that we resign immediately as registered agents of the company
“Apart from funding French politicians, Elf was deeply involved in political payoffs in Angola, Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon,” the e-mail said.
The compliance officer followed up the e-mail with several reminders, though no reply seemed to have been received.
Mossack Fonseca informed the chief of the financial investigation agency in the British Virgin Islands that it did not have any details about the bank accounts or assets held by Mr Guelfi’s company. It gave Mr Guelfi’s address as being a Madliena villa.
The issue was raised again by Mossack Fonseca in 2014 in an e-mail sent to the administrators of Mr Guelfi’s company. It urged the administrators to provide updated due diligence information on Mr Guelfi as well as respond to its finding about his past.“It is very important for us your business and co-operation [sic] and look forward to hearing from you soon regarding this urgent matter,” the e-mail said. Shortly after the e-mail was received, the company administrator told Mossack Fonseca the company would be resigning from its role with immediate effect.
An internal e-mail confirmed that an investigation was ongoing regarding the role of Mr Guelfi’s company, which seemed to have been “misused for an unlawful purpose”.
Mossack Fonseca resigned as agents for the company in 2015.
In a 2008 interview with the Times of Malta, Mr Guelfi had denied any wrongdoing in the Elf case. “I don’t have anything to hide. I carried out the instructions given to me by Elf. I was merely rendering a service to a French company.
“I’ve been wrongly accused, wrongly found guilty. They lied. They used all sorts of threats to make the case against me,” he had said.
The Panama Papers were made available to the Times of Malta through an investigative partnership with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.