Dookie distances self from Panama Papers scandal

Dr Edris K Dookie, one of the three persons linked to Guyana and highlighted in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released database that contains information on offshore entities that are part of the Panama Papers scandal and the offshore leaks investigations, has since distanced himself from the scandal.

Dookie in a media release said that he has “no legal, financial, banking relationships, etc with Panama-based Mossack Fonseca or any other entities, companies and institutions in Panama.” The businessman also defended the company listed in the database – Oyster Oil and Gas Limited – citing that it is a publicly traded company which is listed on the “TSX Venture Exchange, Toronto, Canada.”

The ICIJ database made mention of Dookie as a shareholder in Oyster Oil and Gas Limited, an active company that was incorporated in 2010. The database showed that his local address in Guyana is Lot A16-17 Shamrock Gardens, Ogle, East Coast Demerara. Located at this address is Mid Atlantic Oil & Gas Inc, a company Dookie co-founded.

Dookie was also the co-founder and President of ON Energy and Executive Vice President of CGX Resources Inc, a Canadian oil company that was granted three exploration licences by the Government of Guyana.

He was allegedly fired by the Board of the company in light of the poor performance by CGX in 2013, in finding hydrocarbon deposits on the shores of Guyana. Several wells were drilled which came up empty, thus drying up the company’s cash flow and putting it in a desperate position of needing to raise additional funds to stay afloat. Under new management, however, and in partnership with ExxonMobil, CGX was able to acquire the funding necessary to continue and has since found significant hydrocarbon deposits off Guyana’s shores.

Yucatan Reis, was the second person named in the Panama Papers database who is linked to Guyana. He is a Brazilian that is a beneficiary of Equatorial Project Management and Engineering Enterprises Ltd, according to the database. Further checks of the database showed that the company was incorporated in 2013 and became inactive in 2015, with it being labelled “Bad debt account”. The address of the company is in Switzerland with offshore connections in the British Virgin Islands. The database also shows that Reis has a local address – Lot 40 Bel Air, Georgetown.

Reis is the co-owner of Muri Brazil Ventures Inc and also the owner of Excel Minerals, a gold mining/money transfer/financing company located at Sixth and Light Streets, Alberttown.

The third person named in the database, Chetwynd RF Bowling, has a local address at Lot 20 Main and St John Street, New Amsterdam, Berbice. The database shows that Bowling is a shareholder and Director of Alinga Consulting Group LTD, an active company that was incorporated in 2008. It is located in New York and has possible offshore ties with the British Virgin Islands.

Panamanian specialist law firm Mossack Fonseca, the world’s fourth largest provider of offshore services, was hacked and information totalling 2.6 Terabytes of data (11.5 million) of its confidential documents were leaked to the Panama Metropolitan Paper and other news entities. The leak has since revealed damning information of Heads of States, the elites, business moguls and other parties who were clients of the secretive law firm that created offshore bank accounts to hide their wealth, possibly allowing them to avoid paying taxes.