The United States said Wednesday it had ordered a freeze on $458 million in assets stolen by former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and his accomplices and hidden in European accounts.
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 Africa’s most populous nation.
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.”
- Return funds ‘where appropriate’ -
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 frozed, 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.
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This is the man that nigeria has been honouring and the children insult Wole Soyinka and you wonder why we are in a mess in this country.
ReplyDeleteBabanbarawo
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the son has to say about this.
Yaro babanbarawo
And he was awarded for that!what a country!GOD will surely judge and all will account for what will have done with our life.
ReplyDeleteNigeria is the best place. The same Abacha son replied Wole soyinka in an open letter. What a country?
ReplyDelete..good for Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteStill, some bastards in guise of children can still open their sticking Mouth to defend their so called father instead of burying their heads in shame and appeal to Nigerians to forgive their families for the crimes perpetrated by their father.
ReplyDeleteWhat a country. GJ as the number 1 citizen where did you hide your soul?
ReplyDeleteShameless generation, abasha OLEEE! The most criminal president we had in Nigeria. So u son of OLE barao has d got to reply our great father shoyinka, ur generation will neva hv d opportunity again! Fools
ReplyDeleteWill you continue to punish the sin of the father on the son? Even our Heavenly Father stopped that. Vengance is in God's hand not ours. Ask yourself, the Holy book says if you know you are without sin , cast the first Stone. Check yourself,are you pure?sin is sin. If God should mark iniquite WHO can stand? In your little cornner are you doing the right thing when nobody is looking at you?Let all learn to forgive & move forward for God Almighty to heal our land. Are we the one that took Abacha? Let God be God. Please my people let all of us fear God. He is in charge. Be careful of what you say or do ; our maker is watching & marking us. God bless Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteYetunde or wat do u call urself...if u dnt have anything to say pls just shut it...forgiveness shld be followed by repentance from the offender in d first place...has d abacha family EVER apologised for d traumatisation,terrorisation,murder n degradation that their evil kleptomaniac despotic father put us through for 5yrs...has d son ever shown any remorse in d shape of public letter or even thru his actions...yet u speak abt forgiveness..as d yorubas wld say..ko si aforiji fun ese amoomo da..(there's no forgiveness for intentional sins)..d abacha clan shld for ever be silent in dis country...they shld hide...no...bury their heads in abject shame n ridicule for ever being cursed to bear that name...yet our present dunce of a president wanted to honour him...FOR WHAT??!!...not dat alone..he mentioned grouped abacha's name along with that of Wole Soyinka...degradation at its height...apart frm dat..wat is he being honoured for...tell me yetunde...tell me one good thing abt abacha...is he being honoured for d families he decimated thru murder n terror...or is it for d plundering our commonwealth...he's d worst leader we've had in dis country..yet d spoilt degenerates he left behind as children have d guts to speak...in saner climes if d revolution his father's regime needed took place...his whole clan shld have been rounded up..lined up against a wall n publicly executed...but alas..we're in a democracy dat allows retards like ibrahim n gumsu abacha to speak...d same democracy dat was an alien idea to babanbarawo banza...pls yetunde...never ever speak just for d sake of forgiveness..even with Almighty God...d pre-condition for forgiveness is repentance...total sobriety n a promise of departure from such sinful acts...
DeleteWats more yetunde...u're yoruba so u"ll understand wen I say..." a o maa be ese baba wo l'ara omo titi de ori Iran keje"
DeleteShame to GEJ for honouring this bastard.
ReplyDeleteProphet l don do. GEJ is a fool at fourty and ha has clearly displayed that is a fool forever.When is he going to take control of leadership. We should not wait for crisis because it will be too late. If he can't stir the boat he should simply handover to another person immediately.One year is enough to turn the Country round,
ReplyDeleteYetunde 12:15pm, you are a true christian. What pple fail to understand is the supremacy of our GOD. Whatever kobo a leader of this country whether past or present steal (touched) will surely come back to Central Bank of this Nation. It is a settled matter. GOD is not nigerian judges dat do turn constitution upside down. HIS YES remain YES, n same to NO. It's a matter of time. Let them keep wasting their time n families. 4rm IORJOR VICTOR TER. MAKURDI
ReplyDeleteYetunde ponu gan ooo. Oti ka odii bibeli. Amoju si fe da ori re ru. Ronu ki o to soro nigba miran ooo. Imoran mi si e ko lopin.
ReplyDeleteThis is the tragedy of the contraption called Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteWhile boko haram was busy killing innocent and unprotected children of the poor, our presidents and political leaders were busy honouring a man that American,British and other world leaders classified as 'a kleptocrat' (or an unrepentant theif), a corrupt leader.
I have some issues with America and Britain style of investigation. Does it mean that late Sanni Abacha is the only Nigeria leader that has stollen money stashed away in foriegn banks?
Could it be that America and Britain are pretending to help us fight corruption by revealing the stollen wealth of a dead Nigeria military head of state, while at the same time helping to secure the stollen wealth of the corrupt leaders that are alive.
I will think of changing my perception of Americans and their European allies when and only when they let us know how much Nigerian leaders past and present (those that are still alive) have stollen from this country Nigeria.
Or is American and their European allies telling us that these leaders are innocent of stollen funds just like Abacha would have been innocent were he to be alive today?
What is American afraid of relative to Nigerian leaders who are still living?
What a nation to honour a former dictator $ a criminal,GEJ u outh to have had second thought before that crminal Abacha
ReplyDeleteGEJ is weak agreed but is not wrong here for honoring late Abacha. There are ppl that stole more than him in this country why is US not after them. Simply bcs Abacha is no more. The US are hypocrites and nobody should clap for them. They are only helping to cleanse the man 's sin. In Islam your children or relatives are the one to reconcile your financial inadequacies after death to enhance paradise so thanks to them for Abacha.
ReplyDeleteU.S is a thief. They cooperated with Abacha for him to move some of that money to U.S banks. I doubt if they plan to give that money back to the Nigerian government.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the money for? Why are they retrieving it, when at the end of he day it will be re-looted? They should allow them to enjoy the stolen money afterall, our political thieves are waiting to share it when it comes. O.J
ReplyDelete