As the scandal known as the Panama Papers in 2016 showed, concealing the identity of people who actually benefit from the exploitation of natural resources carries high risks of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in the extractive sector. In this sense, it is necessary to prevent Mozambique from falling into this situation.
Panama Papers showed that, generally, the real owners of companies that are granted licenses to explore mineral resources hide behind corporations, mostly registered as limited companies (SA). Therefore, in many cases, little or nothing is known about the ultimate beneficiaries of the licenses. At times, the identity can also be hidden behind the so-called “iron frontrunners” who claim to be the true owners of the licenses, when in fact they represent “Politically Exposed Persons (PEP)”.
