The United States government today March
5th said it had ordered a freeze on $458
million in assets hidden in European accounts
by former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and
his conspirators.
PM News reports that the Justice Department
said the corruption proceeds, stashed away in
bank accounts in Britain, France and Jersey,
were frozen at Washington’s request with the
help of local authorities.
Abacha died in office in 1998, but his
surviving relatives still include some of
the richest and most influential figures in
Nigeria.
According to a civil forfeiture complaint
unsealed in the US District Court in
Washington, the department wants the
recover more than $550 million in
connection with the action.
“This is the largest civil forfeiture action
to recover the proceeds of foreign official
corruption ever brought by the
department,” said Mythili Raman, acting
assistant attorney general.
“General Abacha was one of the most
notorious kleptocrats in memory, who
embezzled billions from the people of Nigeria
while millions lived in poverty,” she said.
The Justice Department said the assets frozen
— along with additional assets named in the
complaint — represent the “proceeds of
corruption” during and after the military
regime of Abacha, who became president of
Nigeria through a military coup on November
17, 1993 and held that office until his death
on June 8, 1998.
The complaint alleges that Abacha, his son
Mohammed Sani Abacha, their associate
Abubakar Atiku Bagudu and others
“embezzled, misappropriated and extorted
billions from the government of Nigeria and
others, then laundered their criminal proceeds
through the purchase of bonds backed by the
United States using US financial institutions.”
Raman said that the action sends a “clear
message” that the United States is
“determined and equipped to confiscate the
ill-gotten riches of corrupt leaders who drain
the resources of their countries.”
The US government’s Kleptocracy Asset
Recovery Initiative “where appropriate”
provides for the return of stolen proceeds “to
benefit the people harmed by these acts of
corruption and abuse of office.”
It did not specify what action would be taken
with regard to the Abacha case.
The funds frozen include approximately $313
million in two bank accounts in the Bailiwick
of Jersey and $145 million in two bank
accounts in France, the department said.
Four investment portfolios and three bank
accounts in Britain were frozen, with an
estimated value of at least $100 million but
the exact amounts in the accounts have not
yet been determined, it said.
The Justice Department said that on February
25 and 26, authorities in Jersey, France and
Britain complied with the US action to freeze
the assets.
The complaint also seeks to freeze five
corporate entities registered in the British
Virgin Islands.
According to the complaint, Abacha and
others systematically embezzled billions of
dollars in public funds from Nigeria’s central
bank on the false pretense that the funds were
necessary for national security. They withdrew
the funds in cash and then moved the money
overseas through US financial institutions.
Abacha and his finance minister, Anthony Ani,
also allegedly caused the Nigerian government
to buy Nigerian government bonds at vastly
inflated prices from a company controlled by
Bagudu and Mohammed Abacha. That
operation created an an illegal windfall of
more than $282 million.
In addition, Abacha and his co-conspirators
allegedly extorted more than $11 million from
a French civil engineering company, Dumez,
and its Nigerian affiliate in connection with
payments on government contracts.
Funds involved in each of these schemes were
laundered through the United States in nine
financial institutions, the complaint alleged.
The financial institutions involved include
Citibank, Chase Manhattan Bank and Morgan
Guaranty Trust Company, now JPMorgan
Chase, and New York-based units of Britain’s
Barclays Bank and Germany’s Commerzbank.
Last week, at a ceremony to mark the
centenary of Nigeria’s formation by colonial
lords, the Nigerian government headed by
Goodluck Jonathan honoured Abacha, along
with other past leaders for services rendered to
Nigeria.
Source: PM News
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