Inside details of 80 companies linked to Herbert Wigwe across 20 countries

The late Herbert Wigwe was, by many considerations, one of the most consequential bankers in Nigeria.

As the chief executive of Access Holdings, he helped transform a mid-tier lender into West Africa’s largest banking institution. But when he died in a helicopter crash in the California desert in February 2024, alongside his wife, son, and two others, the full scale of his financial world had barely been told.

PREMIUM TIMES can now report, drawing on corporate filings across multiple jurisdictions, UK property registration data, and company records in Nigeria, Cyprus, the United States, Mauritius, the Isle of Man, and Jersey, that Mr Wigwe held stakes in at least 80 companies spread across 20 countries.

Many of these entities were registered in known tax havens and were not publicly disclosed during his lifetime.

Our findings reveal a web of real estate holdings, investment vehicles, family wealth offices, oil and gas interests, fintech platforms, and philanthropic foundations linked to the late banker.

In March, the Londoner newspaper reported 106 properties linked to Mr Wigwe in London, which were registered elsewhere in shell companies outside the UK. But the newspaper could only reveal those details because the UK adopted the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022, establishing the Register of Overseas Entities, held by the UK’s Companies House. The register requires foreign companies that own, sell or buy property to declare their beneficial owners, making it possible to check the sources of funds used to acquire such property.

Before this provision, individuals could launder suspicious funds through notorious secrecy jurisdictions and tax havens, hiding behind shell companies incorporated in those havens to anonymously buy properties in the UK, especially in London.

Wealthy individuals frequently establish shell companies to mask asset ownership, often by retaining fund and wealth managers to register legal entities on their behalf. Jersey, for instance, does not require companies to publicly declare their ownership, meaning that on any publicly accessible record, a property purchased through a Jersey-registered entity may be difficult to trace to its actual owner.

Several reasons exist for why these properties might be registered this way; being owned by a company in a tax haven does not automatically mean wrongdoing. Affluent individuals and their advisers routinely use such structures for estate planning, currency risk management, liability limitation and cross-border investment.

Tengen Family Office, based in Ikoyi, Lagos, manages the wealth of Mr Wigwe and Aigboje Aig Imoukhuede, his long-time business partner with whom he acquired Access Bank in 2002, according to its website. Incorporated in 2017, the firm was jointly owned, with 50 per cent each, by Mr Wigwe and Mr Aig-Imoukhuede. A similar Nigerian entity, Tengen FOL Limited (RC 711023, also incorporated in September 2017), replicated the same ownership structure.

In Mauritius, one of Africa’s foremost tax havens, the two partners held Tengen Holdings Mauritius under the Coronation Capital umbrella, registered in 2019 under Coronation Group Limited. This Mauritius entity figured prominently in Mr Wigwe’s shareholding structure at Access Holdings.

According to Access Holdings’ 2023 audited financial report, Mr Wigwe owned 2.59 billion shares worth N65.3 billion, equivalent to 7.3 per cent of the banking group’s entire issued shares at the time. He held 1.26 billion of those shares indirectly through Coronation Trustees Tengen Mauritius, a Mauritius-registered entity.

His indirect holdings as of December 2023 comprised 201 million direct shares in Access Corporation Plc, and a further 2.3 billion indirect shares through United Alliance Company of Nigeria Limited (537,734,219 shares), Trust and Capital Limited (584,056,979 shares), and Coronation Trustees Tengen Mauritius (1,264,264,206 shares). His total shareholding in Access Corporation stood at 35 billion units as of 31 December 2023.

He was also a shareholder in Coronation Insurance and its subsidiary, Access Bank Plc.

The British and European company records trace a parallel architecture of real estate and holding vehicles.

In the United Kingdom, Mr Wigwe’s footprint included Lodging Holding Ltd (registration number OE009983), incorporated as an overseas entity on 23 December 2022, with Mr Wigwe and four legal entities listed as directors.

Carmel Gate Ltd, a real estate company registered in 2012, also appears in his portfolio alongside Access Bank UK Ltd.

Deansleigh Holdings Limited, first incorporated in Cyprus in April 2015, with its registered address at 15 Agion Omologiton, Nicosia, Cyprus, later became a UK holding company. It was re-registered as Deanleigh Holdings Limited on 10 July 2022, bearing registration number OE001513. Mr Wigwe owned a 25 per cent stake, with the remaining interest held by Alliance Assets Limited, Maria Panagiotou, and an unnamed legal entity.

In Cyprus, four additional active entities were registered in his name: Belde Co Ltd (registered 2014, last annual report filed November 2024); Vendereso Corporation Limited (registration number 334943, registered August 2014); Lodging Holding Limited (registered April 2013, last annual report filed March 2025); and QEXLE Trading Limited, co-owned by Mr Wigwe and three other entities, with its last annual report also filed in March 2025.

In Jersey, Mr Wigwe held interests in One Southbank Properties Limited and Glenq Private Wealth Limited with an ownership trail dating to 2014.

Some of Mr Wigwe’s earliest offshore activity is traceable to the Isle of Man, where he appears to have begun structuring entities as far back as 2006.

Warne Limited was registered there in 2006 by Mr Wigwe and Zedra Trust Company Limited. Two years later, in 2008, the same partnership produced DHT Limited.

A third Isle of Man entity, Balladoyne Limited, was registered in February 2010, also with Zedra Trust Company as co-owner. On 18 December 2023, just weeks before Mr Wigwe’s death, his shares in Balladoyne were transferred to unidentified legal entities.

In the United States, Mr Wigwe’s corporate presence spanned Florida and Washington, D.C., with five identified entities.

Beraug Investments LLC (Florida registration L07000027796), incorporated in 2007 at 3251 Boca Raton, Florida, was jointly owned by Mr Wigwe, his wife Doreen, and their children Chizi and Charel Wigwe. It was dissolved in September 2008 after failing to file an annual report.

Beraug Consulting Services Corporation, incorporated in 2011 with incorporation number 27-46429041, listed its purpose as “any lawful business.” Its registered address was 2103 Coral Way 108, Miami, Florida 33145, and its agent at incorporation was Betty Blanco. Its last annual report was filed in February 2023, after which it was dissolved.