_{by Gina Maka’a, Ofani Eremae, Charley Piringi, and Lamantha Lano} 

Just two months before Solomon Islands went to the polls this year, OUR Party President Jimson Fiau Tanangada and the son of Finance Minister Manasseh Sogavare set up a mysterious offshore shell company in Singapore in tandem with a Chinese partner, documents show. 

The company, OUR International Development Fund Pte Ltd, bears a name strikingly similar to the party, which leads the country’s current governing coalition. It was set up in February with 100,000 Singapore dollars (SBD 627,000) in capital, according to the documents from Singapore’s company registry. 

Tanangada and Sogavare’s son Brandt – who is studying in China – each own 40 percent of the company. The remaining 20 percent is owned by a 30-year-old Chinese citizen, Pan Jinglin. However, reporters were unable to verify Pan’s identity or reach him for comment.

Both Sogavare and Tanangada are listed in the Singapore registry at separate home addresses in the city of Foshan, in China’s Guangdong province. Pan is listed as living in a small fishing village on Guangdong’s southern coast. 

It is unclear what purpose the company serves. A reporter who visited OUR International Development Fund’s listed address in Singapore’s Bugis neighbourhood found an unmarked office with a closed door under which mail had been stuffed. 

Nearby tenants said they were unsure if the room was occupied. 

Tanangada confirmed the existence of the Singapore company to In-depth Solomons, but said that it has “no affiliation” with OUR Party.

“Yes, the names may sound similar but that does not mean they are linked,” Tanangada said, adding that the company is a private venture.

Tanangada declined to answer what sort of business the company is engaged in, but said it had not yet begun trading. 

The minister also refused to provide details about Pan’s identity, other than to say that his “parents run a business and lived in the Solomons.”

He said he traveled to China at Pan’s invitation several months before OUR International Fund Pte Ltd was registered in Singapore.

“It was in China that we filled up the business registration forms. This is where I got the Chinese address on the business registry,” Tanangada said.

“After filling up the forms, I returned home. The actual registration was done by Pan.”

Records from Solomon Islands shed little extra light on Pan’s background.

Publicly-available Company Haus filings show that a person by the name Pan Jinglin established a Honiara company called Solomon Island Pacsafe Ltd in 2019. The company has since been dissolved. 

However, when a reporter called the local number listed for Pan with the registry, the call was answered by Cynthia Rimon, a resident of West Honiara.

Rimon said that she had never heard of Pan and that no one else was using her phone number at the time Solomon Island Pacsafe was registered. 

The person listed in Company Haus as Pacsafe’s local business agent, Sisifa Fa’arodo, also said she had no idea who Pan was. 

Fa’arodo said she had not set up the company, and that someone else may have used her name to register it.

An Immigration Department source, who declined to be identified because they are not authorised to speak to the media, told In-depth Solomons that they were unable to find records of a Pan Jinglin entering or leaving Solomon Islands.

Reporters were unable to contact Brandt Sogavare, 23, who has lived and studied in China on a scholarship since 2019. 

However, his father, Manasseh Sogavare, said he believed his son was lured into signing up to something he knew little or nothing about.

“I’ve called Brandt and instructed him to immediately get out of this company,” Sogavare told In-depth Solomons.

^{_{Finance Minister, Manasseh Sogavare: Credits: In-depth Solomons}}

He said OUR Party, which he founded and currently its parliamentary wing leader, was never part of any discussions or formation of OUR International Development Fund Ltd.

“Jimson (Tanangada) did mention setting up a company in Singapore to me,” Sogavare said.

“He said having this company in Singapore will ensure we have funds coming in to support OUR Party-initiated projects in Solomon Islands.”

“It’s an attractive initiative, but I told him this is not a good idea because setting up a company in an international financial center like Singapore will raise a lot of red flags.

“So I did not support his idea. And that was it.”

Sogavare said he was shocked when In-depth Solomons alerted him to OUR International Development Fund Ltd, and that his son was one of the shareholders.

He insisted he knew nothing about the company or Pan Jinglin, the 30-year-old Chinese partner in this venture.

He said Tanangada has been a frequent visitor to China in recent times, and that he may have met Pan during one of his visits.

Tanangada was named Solomon Islands’ police minister in May this year after reclaiming the Gizo-Kolombangara seat in Western Province, which he lost in an election petition case in 2017. 

_{^{The Minister for Police and National Security Minister, Jimson Tanangada, and Vice Minister of Public Security (MPS) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Hon. Wang Zhizhong, in July this year. Credits: MPNSCS Press.}}

Previous reporting shows that he has visited China on at least four occasions since 2023: twice as an official working in the Prime Minister’s Office and twice as Minister for Police and National Security.

Under OUR Party-led coalition rule, Solomon Islands has drawn closer to China and signed a secretive policing pact with Beijing in 2022, causing alarm in Western countries. 

Tanangada’s current role makes him a key figure in the China-Solomons relationship.

Opposition Leader Matthew Wale said he believed Tanangada was not being truthful about the purpose of the Singapore company, OUR International Development Fund Ltd.

“Tanangada knows it’ll be hard to prove him wrong,” Wale said.

^{Leader of the Opposition, Mathew Wale. Credits: In-depth Solomons.}

“Why would he put Sogavare’s son as a shareholder?  And why name the company ‘OUR’?”

However, a spokesperson for Central Bank of Solomon Islands(CBSI)  confirmed CBSI is not aware of this company.

“This is confirmed further by the respective departments and management concerned.” The spokesperson confirmed in an email.

The person adds that registering a company offshore does not require CBSI’s consent.