Kariba Trust

The Kariba REDD Trust Fund is a key part of a project being implemented with a component included of what is generally known as “percentage of net profit share with the local community”. The call those “benefits” canonically, and this element is highly effective and pushed during the marketing and sales stages.

Mentioning the high financial added benefit to communities considered less-privileged, at least in the sales calls I was present at, always aligned with the moment the customer started to build high levels of trust that the quality assurance was taken care of, and solidified their trust in South Pole, and their product.

Given that we know directly from speaking with the locals, as well as statements made in the media by Dirk Muench (tried to perform an immediate full audit, but found out there was no paper trail to speak of), Steven Wentzel (who they all agree was the last to have access to the full extend of the funds covering the profit share, but we will cover that in the findings), Christian Dannecker (personally managed Kariba REDD+ at South Pole’s end), and Renat Heuberger (who knowingly attempted to hide the truth and use his influence and reputation to neutralize the mounting evidence, for fear of loss of value in the market for the forestry project backed credit types).

It is therefor essential that the evidence which exposes the timeline of events, along which we prove at each step what exactly happened, how the funds travelled, which tools were used, and the level of willing participation each actor had at the time.

Findings

We will go over the relavant portions of the Kariba life time, as much as possible in chronological order, adding the evidence that is available. The primary focus will be specifically on the financials, with the goal being to provide enough evidence backed context to allow those parts to be recognized as fraud, failures in compliance,

Fund Origins

070.01_Kariba_REDD+_Project_Validation_Report_Final_29_Sept2012.pdf

Page 14

Community and Project Sustainability Fund

A significant (20% of net profit) share of the project’s carbon income will be invested in general activities that promote and guarantee project sustainability. The project’s Community and Project Sustainability Fund is structured to benefit whole communities, specifically including the poorest

members of society. The fund will be used to improve health and education in the project area due to long term activities. The project is being undertaken on communal lands and as such it is imperative that the people within these communities can improve their livelihood security via the

project. The project proponents feel that this aspect of the revenue distribution is of utmost importance. A Board will decide upon the use of the Community and Project Sustainability Fund’s resources. The Board will be comprised of Carbon Green Africa (CGA) Trust members in conjunction with selected members of the Community and Council from each RDC. Oversight will be given by the Project Proponent to ensure all VCS criteria are met and funds are reaching their required targets. The fund will be used to improve health and education in the project area (see below).

CCBA_PROJ_DESC_902_08FEB2012.pdf

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COMMUNITY AND PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY FUND

A significant (20% of net profit) share of the project’s carbon income will b invested into general activities promoting and guaranteeing sustainability of the project. The project is

being undertaken on communal lands and as such it is imperative the people within these

communities have their lives enriched by the project. The project proponents feel that this

aspect of the revenue distribution is the most important of them all. A board will decide

upon the use of the Community and Project Sustainability Fund’s resources. The board will

comprise of Carbon Green Africa (CGA) Trust37 members in conjunction with selected

members of the Community and Council from each RDC. Oversight will be given by CGI to

ensure all CCBS criteria are met and funds are reaching their required targets.

The fund will be used to improve health and education in the project area.

Mauritius link via South Pole database.

Using the following SQL query to pinpoint the canonical data row.

SELECT * FROM m_erpa WHERE id = 2333;

The following relevant data can be observed,

• An ERPA was signed by the user with the unique and canonical numerical identifier of 9. Using the following SQL query will bring up the matching record from the table that stores user specific information, confirming this user to be Christian Dannecker.
  
  SELECT * FROM fa_user WHERE id = 9;

• An ERPA invoicing address contains the details entered manually by this user, and shows the following value:
  
  ACCOUNT NAME: EBC Mauritius Limited
  BENEFICIARY ADDRESS: C/o Sanlam Trustees (Mauritius) Ltd, Labourdonnais Village, Mapou, Mauritius
  ACCOUNT NUMBER: 000442291000
  IBAN NUMBER – USD ACCOUNT: MU82MCBL0944000442291000000USD
  BANK NAME: THE MAURITIUS COMMERCIAL BANK
  BANK ADDRESS: 9-15 SIR WILLIAM NEWTON STREET, PORT LOUIS, MAURITIUS
  SWIFT CODE: MCBLMUMU
  CORRESPONDENT BANK DETAILS: Citibank N.A. SWIFT Code: CITIUS33
  
  Given that Citibank, and not CreditSuisse is used as the correspondent bank, matching SWIFT, it shows that South Pole intended to use their South Pole USA entity for this transfer of funds, which uses the below bank account details as the sole account for the New York office.
  
  Registered company office
  
  South Pole USA Inc
  228 East 45th Street, Suite 9E, New York
  United States of America
  
  Bank account details
  
  Account holder: SOUTH POLE USA, INC.
  Account number: 6792733751
  Bank: Citibank
  SWIFT Code: CITI US 33
  Routing number: 0210-0008-9
  
  The SQL query below can be used to also find the IBAN, with the canonical id (always the first column) for the South Pole entity you would like to look at. However, the US does not use IBAN, so not needed in this casse.
  
  `SELECT FROM sp_entities;`
  
  To get the account number use the query blow.
  
  SELECT FROM sp_entity_accounts WHERE sp_entity_id = 34;
  
  While an ERPA, or Emission Reduction Payment Agreement, would not be the first thing that comes to mind when agreeing on the terms under which to set up and govern a trust fund to manage the benefit sharing clause of the Project Design Document (PDD), there is prescedent for this exact situation as well, given it has been a recommended route recorded in documentation about benefit sharing as a key element of the project fundamentals.
  
  SOURCES
  
  (To avoid confusion, in no way should any details related directly or indirectly to shell/shelf companies be taken at face value. The only value they provide is the potential when matches are confirmed on all sides of the involved parties. Data found on company websites is likely not reflective of the actual persons on the management end, and at any time subject to be changed by them in all possible ways)
  
  ERPA additional information:
  Emission Reductions Payment Agreements (ERPA) Climate Explainer
  
  ERPA used in context of projects with a benefit sharing component:
  Benefit%20Sharing%20Note_August%202020_English_
  
  The websites linked to the EBC entities, showing matching design and content:
  
  ebcgsy
  
  EBC Guernsey Limited
  
  Home - EBC Mauritius Limited
  
  The registered entities on the three addresses, as consistently recorded by the websites controlled by Steve Wentzel, the South Pole database, and documents uploaded to Verra, revealing matches in the official Panama Papers publication by the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists:
  
  14006155 (The original Guernsey address used by Steve Wentzel for both the EBC (Guernsey) company website, and Carbon Green Investments company website which he created to manage the Kariba REDD+ project)
  
  58055938 (using just the first part, C/o Summit Trust (Mauritius) Ltd, of the registered address recorded on the EBC (Maritius) website. An exact full address match does not exist, possibly because regularly changing company details like addresses is an essential component of the obfuscation strategy used for networked shell companies)
  
  14015612 (the business address recorded on the Mauritius version of the EBC website, for which a complete match does exist)
  
• EBC (Guernsey) Ltd has been a known entity connected to Steve Wentzel, records in the South Pole database exist for steve@ebcgsy.com, confirming both parties had full awareness of the domain. This is to the best of my knowledge the first instance of a confirmed secondary entity, located in a separate offshore location.
  
  The following SQL queries provide a way to confirm the South Pole database entries that recorded the steve@ebcgsy.com email domain.
  
  SELECT * FROM m_erpa WHERE id IN (2766, 2767, 3018);

SELECT * FROM m_sales_erpa WHERE id IN (2255, 2883);

• OAK Group has been known to be linked to Carbon Green Investments, and Steve Wentzel, by means of the recorded Guernsey office address, 18-20 The Pollet, Guernsey GY1 1WH, Guernsey, includes a multitude of entities following the OAK naming scheme. Additionally the officially recorded documentation on the project page hosted on the Verra registry will consistently be signed by either OAK Directors, or OAK Secretary. The reason for this is that these particular OAK entities are part of a type of service that can be used, specifically designed to streamline and simplify the creation, and subsequent management of companies.
  
  SOURCES
  
  The correct version of the various OAK Group websites, which confirms the offered service:
  Oak Group, innovative and bespoke fiduciary services - Oak Group
  
  TODO: Examples of the specific documents that were signed the the person who manages this process on OAK’s side.
  
  PP_REG_REP_902_30SEP2012
  
  This document stored on the Verra registry shows the representation deed between Carbon Green Investments and Andrew Fox from OAK Trust.
  

NOTES TO STRUCTURE AS ABOVE

• See if Dirk Muench is willing to provide his insights (already asked, waiting on answer). He was described in the article as having “pulled the finances on the project” and I wonder what that means. This specific part of the finances was clearly hidden, so I guess he had insight on the corporate Credit Suisse accounts. The main question I have is whether he knows the name of the Kariba Trust Fund that was created. The Verra documents record into the projects history that the third-party auditors (Environmental Services, Inc., and the time after that Aster Global (actually both the same people, everybody keeps dissolving companies and making news ones in this sector for some reason ).

• Find out the ultimate benificiary of the account data that Steve Wentzel provided, and while actually calling the ultimate trust by name, I believe that Wentzel has lied, because I can find it, but still seem to be looping back and forth in the structure. But it will become clear soon.
  
  ACCOUNT NAME: EBC Mauritius Limited
  BENEFICIARY ADDRESS: C/o Sanlam Trustees (Mauritius) Ltd, Labourdonnais Village, Mapou, Mauritius
  ACCOUNT NUMBER: 000442291000
  IBAN NUMBER – USD ACCOUNT: MU82MCBL0944000442291000000USD
  BANK NAME: THE MAURITIUS COMMERCIAL BANK
  BANK ADDRESS: 9-15 SIR WILLIAM NEWTON STREET, PORT LOUIS, MAURITIUS
  SWIFT CODE: MCBLMUMU
  CORRESPONDENT BANK DETAILS: Citibank N.A. SWIFT Code: CITIUS33

• Another angle that is starting to get legs is South Pole being way more involved than it may seem, there are very strange things going on, always had that feeling, just compared to my previous 20+ companies. But it is too early to make claims now. However, the discovery of a company registered at the same Mauritius address as Wentzel is very clearly completely controlled by South Pole, while being presented as entirely unrelated. diccult, especially when you need to move m millioms or more, combined with other assets licht yachts.

• Investigate why there are certain long running sales agreements contain the note “DO NOT INVOICE DIRECTLY THIS CLIENT! WE RECOVER OUR MARGIN FROM CGI (KARIBA PO)” I know it has something along the lines of Steve Wentzel sending an invoices for a lower amount per credit purchase from South Pole, to compensate what South Pole would normally just invoice, but not sure why. It is very strange, having read a lot of their emails by now, it seems fine to move money from Mautitius to ZIm, they jsust really do not like fraud . Their AML requirements are exceptionally