Ellias Preko, a former Goldman
Sachs banker who was convicted for helping former Delta governor, James Ibori,
launder money has been ordered to pay back £7.3 million.
DailyMail UK reports that a court
in the United Kingdom gave the 60-year-old an option of paying the fine or
spending 10 years in prison.
Preko, who is originally from
Ghana, was jailed in 2013 for 54 months for his role in the scheme.
He was said to have used his
‘gold-plated credentials, expertise and veneer of respectability’ to help Ibori
take money out of Nigeria and hide such in offshore accounts.
David Tomlison, the judge who
heard the case, gave the Harvard graduate three months to repay the money or
risk jail term.
When asked, Preko said he used
the money he received from those transactions to run for political office on
the platform of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Ghana.
Ibori, a former DIY store cashier
prior his rise into politics, was jailed for 13 years in 2012 after he admitted
stealing state funds during an eight-year term of office.
The court heard how he pocketed
up to £160 million from government treasuries, depriving some of the world’s
poorest people of the cash.
Preko, who represented himself,
told the court in a previous hearing much of the cash had been spent on
election campaigning back in his native Ghana.
“Most of the expenses are not
receipted. Ghanaian political activities are not financed by the state,” he
said, explaining that he only had few receipts.
I spent money to attempt some
acceptance because I had been out of the country for so long. I gave money to
women to build schools, provide scholarships, just to get my name out there.”
During his court appearance,
Ibori had pleaded guilty to a seven-count charge of fraud and money laundering.
He was sentenced to a 13-year
jail term and returned to Nigeria in February 2017.
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