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In March 2013 Hatoyama was appointed honorary chairman and senior consultant of Hoifu Energy Group Ltd., an oil and gas exploration and production company incorporated in Bermuda in 2000.
According to a company report, his role was to use his “amicable relationship” with the energy industry in the United States, Japan, China and Africa as the directors planned to expand Hoifu’s oil and gas business. The directors of the company, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, include Hui Chi Ming, one of China’s wealthiest oil tycoons with business interests in Madagascar, and international investor Neil Bush, the brother of former U.S. President George W. Bush.
Hatoyama confirmed that he is the honorary chairman of Hoifu but said that “in substance” the title “has no meaning,” because he doesn’t attend management meetings nor is he involved with the company’s business. He also told Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun that Hoifu may have wanted to use his name to “earn trust” in China. Hatoyama said he receives consulting fees in his personal capacity which are regularly disclosed in his tax filings.
Hatoyama said he doesn’t know why the company was incorporated in Bermuda and not in Hong Kong, where it is listed. The company did not respond to requests for comments.
See allThis ICIJ database contains information on more than 785,000 offshore entities that are part of the Panama Papers, the Offshore Leaks, the Bahamas Leaks and the Paradise Papers investigations. The data covers nearly 80 years up to 2016 and links to people and companies in more than 200 countries and territories.
There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. We do not intend to suggest or imply that any people, companies or other entities included in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly. Many people and entities have the same or similar names. We suggest you confirm the identities of any individuals or entities located in the database based on addresses or other identifiable information. If you find an error in the database please get in touch with us.
The ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database is licensed under the Open Database License and contents under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. Always cite the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists when using this data. You can download a raw copy of the database here.
Help ICIJ investigate
There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. We do not intend to suggest or imply that any people, companies or other entities included in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly. Many people and entities have the same or similar names. We suggest you confirm the identities of any individuals or entities located in the database based on addresses or other identifiable information. If you find an error in the database please get in touch with us.
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Find this content interesting and worth supporting?
Donate to ICIJ. Help us continue investigating important global issues. Gifts made today will be matched up to $10,000.