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“General Abacha was one of 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.
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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