Before beginning today’s article, we invite readers to view a BBC documentary to be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlTXRWMYpzQ&feature=youtu.be regarding a $10 billion scandal involving oil and gas exploration off the coast of Senegal, West Africa. (The video was forwarded to us by Mr. Glen Lall from the Kaieteur News.)
In 2011, the Senegalese government granted two exploration concessions covering 6,700 square miles to an unknown company with no record of off-shore drilling. The agreement was entered into on 8 December 2011, but the company, Petro-Tim Ltd., was not formed until six weeks later. Its headquarters in the UK could also not be traced as the address stated in the agreement contained apartment block buildings. Petro-Tim is owned by a Romanian businessman, Frank Timis, who has a chequered past, having been convicted in the 1990s for trafficking in heroin. He lives a lavish lifestyle in a luxury apartment flat in London on which he spends £40,000 monthly. Mr. Timis’s income tax payment for 2017 was a mere £35.20 and there is no evidence that he paid any taxes for 2016. He is alleged to be involved in tax evasion, having received dividends from his secret off-shore trust and converted them into loans via a backdated loan agreement.
Mr. Timis is also alleged to enjoy a close relationship with Mr. Aliou Sall, the brother of the Senegalese President, Macky Sall who, in his election bid, promised to deal condignly with corruption in Senegal. On assuming office, the President ordered an investigation into the granting of the two concessions to Petro-Tim. The investigation recommended that the concessions be taken back, but the President took no action in this regard.
