The following has been reported in the Jersey Evening post on 3 August 2017 –

A JERSEY finance firm had close ties to a controversial property deal which brought about the downfall of the Pakistani Prime Minister following a corruption probe, it has emerged. The London properties were

• not declared on Sharif’s official family wealth statement and
• only revealed by the Panama Papers leak in April 2016, prompting protests in Pakistan and calls for the family to be investigated.

Last week, Nawaz Sharif stood down after his country’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled to dis qualify him from elected office following a series of corruption scandals, including not fully disclosing his family’s wealth and concealing assets using offshore jurisdictions.

Sharif’s resignation was the first time that a Pakistani leader had been disqualified. It is widely predicted that the move could prompt civil unrest in the country.

The court’s decision was prompted by revelations in the Panama Papers – which leaked more than 11 million documents from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca that showed that three of Sharif’s children bought properties in London using two offshore shell companies.

The two property-owning shell companies are called Nielsen Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited, which are based in the British Virgin Islands and

• Minerva Trust and Corporate Services Limited were appointed as intermediary [service provider] for both companies
• Minerva Nominees Limited and Minerva Services Limited acting as

The Panamagate Joint Investigation Team, which led the investigation, found that

• Sharif s daughter Maryam Nawaz misled them during their inquiries by saying she was the ‘trustee not the owner’ of Avendale Properties, four flats which are located in London’s exclusive Mayfair district.
• It was eventually determined that Ms Nawaz was in fact the real ultimate beneficial owner of the properties and falsified a document to support her claims.
• The document was proved to be false when it was discovered that it was written in the Calibri font, which was not actually available at the time the forgery was supposedly signed in 2006.

The JFSC’s statement says:

• ‘The JFSC is aware of the recent media coverage in respect of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, regarding information uncovered in the leaked documents from offshore firm Mossack Fonseca.
• Customer due diligence requirements are set out in Jersey law and JFSC regulatory rules.
• The JFSC supervises all regulated financial service providers for compliance with these requirements.
• If they are not met, one potential response is that enforcement action can be taken against the firm concerned.
• ‘The JFSC does not comment on individual regulated entities therefore no further comments will nor can be made at this time.’

Minerva managing director Steven Bowen said that his firm applied ‘strict due diligence’ on the beneficial owners of the two BVI companies to meet Jersey’s compliance regulations and their ‘service’ to them ended in 2014.

Minerva is based in La Motte Street and also has offices in Gene- va, Mauritius, London, Dubai and Singapore. The firm was contacted by the JEP but was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.