Founder and general overseer of Living Faith Church Worldwide (a. k. a. Winners Chapel), Bishop David Oyedepo, is reportedly refusing to comment on an investigative story linking him to the Pandora Papers.
The Pandora Papers is a trove of leaked documents detailing how politicians, celebrities, business moguls and many more hide their wealth in offshore companies, or tax havens, in order to avoid paying taxes in the countries where they operate.
Bishop Oyedepo reportedly owns four private jets, two universities, an oil company, a secondary school, an airline company and several others.
In August 2007, Bishop Oyedepo, contracted the services of Business Centrum Limited, a London-based agent, to help him set up a company in the infamous tax haven for him and his immediate family, Premium Times reported on Sunday.
Business Centrum Limited subsequently subcontracted Trident Trust Group, one of the world’s leading secrecy enablers and one of the most notorious providers of offshore corporate and financial services.
The company, Zadok Investments Limited, was set up on August 20, 2007, with 50,000 ordinary shares with a value of $1.00 each.
Although the directors of the company are Bishop Oyedepo and his two sons – David (junior) and Isaac, every member of Bishop Oyedepo’s family are listed as shareholders.
Bishop Oyedepo and his wife, Faith, are the largest shareholders with 30 per cent of shares each.
His children – David (junior), who in 2016 was appointed resident pastor of the headquarters of the church, known as Faith Tabernacle, has 10 per cent while Isaac, who is the resident pastor of the church’s branch in Maryland, the United States of America, also has 10 per cent of the shares.
Love and Joy – the two daughters of the cleric – were similarly given 10 per cent shares each.
The documents did not reveal the exact businesses and transactions the offshore company was set up to conduct. The entity however appears to be the family’s investment vehicle under which the family’s wealth is warehoused for offshore management.
When reached via his personal email address, Bishop Oyedepo did not respond to questions sent to him seeking his comments.
Premium Times also sent the questions to the publicised emails of his church, including that of the church’s branch in Maryland. Some of the emails returned undelivered while we did not receive any response for those that delivered.
The telephone number Bishop Oyedepo listed in company documents failed to connect, Premium Times reported.
Some of the documents revealed that the company was still active at least as recently as 2016 when Trident Trust filed a resolution of the company’s board revalidating its list of directors.
Bishop Oyedepo is not the first Nigerian pastor to be linked with tax havens. Christ Embassy’s Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and the late founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), Prophet TB Joshua, also fall into that list.
Via Premium Times
