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REVEALED: The Men Who Helped Abacha Launder $23 Million Recently Recovered By UK Govt

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The $23.5 million Abacha loot recovered this month by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) was forfeited by Mohammed Abacha and an offshore company Mecosta Securities Inc., the British agency has told PREMIUM TIMES.

PREMIUM TIMES’ further investigation, based on the NCA’s exclusive disclosure and analysis of leaked financial records and court documents, shows that Mecosta’s account in London, from which the stolen funds were recovered, was controlled by Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu. In the 1990s, Mr. Bagudu worked in the role of an Abacha bagman helping to steal and stash hundreds of millions of dollars across the world.

On May 5, the NCA released a statement disclosing the recovery of “$23,439,724.98 siphoned out of Nigeria in the 1990s” by the Abacha family and associates.

The agency said it acted at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The USDOJ started its civil forfeiture case – and has since obtained forfeiture orders – in the district court in Washington D.C. against stolen Nigerian assets linked to Mr. Abacha. USDOJ told the court the assets were routed through the American jurisdiction and stashed in several other jurisdictions, including the UK, by the Abacha family and associates, most notably Mr. Bagudu.

“The funds form part of a larger pool of monies identified by the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) as having been misappropriated by Abacha and his associates,” the NCA said. It added that it obtained the recovery order after nearly seven years of litigation in the UK to enforce the U.S. forfeiture order related to the recovered funds.

However, the NCA in its statement did not disclose the specific individuals or entities from whom the stolen funds had been recovered.

Recovered from Mohammed and Bagudu’s secret company

PREMIUM TIMES contacted the agency with a request for specific and undisclosed information.

“The monies were recovered from Mohammed Sani Abacha and Mecosta Securities Inc,” said NCA’s communications manager Stuart Hadley in an emailed reply.

PREMIUM TIMES then used leaked financial records such as Pandora Papers and the USDOJ court documents to establish Mr. Bagudu’s association with Mecosta.

The Standard Bank London account of the offshore company Mecosta, registered in the British Virgin Islands on October 9, 1995, was controlled by Mr. Bagudu, who helped Mr. Abacha steal and launder Nigerian monies across jurisdictions with complicated financial transactions, according to leaked financial and U.S. court documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

The court documents specifically said that a sum of $21.7 million targeted for forfeiture was held in Mecosta’s account at Standard Bank London controlled by Mr. Bagudu.

Mr. Bagudu, who was twice elected federal lawmaker, has been the governor of Nigeria’s northwestern Kebbi State since 2015 and is an ally of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Bagudu is an example of how Nigeria’s kleptocratic political class enjoys power and privilege despite their clear and condemnable track record,” commented Mathew Page, a Nigerian governance expert.

Mr. Bagudu has never been charged and enjoys immunity from prosecution in Nigeria while he holds office as governor of a state.

Apart from the Standard Bank, Mr. Bagudu was the authorized signatory on the accounts of Mecosta at other banks such as ANZ, London; Credit Agricole Indosuez London; Goldman Sachs, Zurich, and Banque Baring Brothers in Geneva, according to the U.S. court documents obtained.

It is believed that the $21.7 million stashed in the Mecosta’s Standard Bank London’s account controlled by Mr. Bagudu was the far larger part of the $23.5 million recently recovered by the NCA.

The other part, it is believed based on our review of USDOJ’s court filing and the definite disclosure by the NCA, is $1.6 million in an HSBC account in the name of Mohammed Abacha, the late dictator’s son.

Abacha plunder machine

In the plunder machine that late kleptocrat Mr. Abacha set up, Mr. Bagudu was the most prolific bagman, court documents and leaked financial records revealed.

“Abubakar Atiku Bagudu was an associate of General Abacha and his sons who participated in the conspiracy to steal and launder hundreds of millions of dollars,” American investigators told the court. “Among other things, Bagudu played an instrumental role in setting up and executing the complicated financial transactions used to launder the proceeds of the conspiracy.”

Gov. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State

Mr. Abacha, his family, and associates systematically plundered Nigeria between 1993 when the dictator seized power and 1998 when he died. In conspiracy with his family and associates, he stole up to $5 billion, according to Transparency International.

According to American investigators, they used false security claims to steal at least $2 billion dollars, which “was transported out of Nigeria and deposited into accounts controlled by General Abacha’s associates, including Mohammed Abacha and Bagudu.”

This was apart from other stolen funds through bribery and a dramatic conspiracy by Mr. Abacha’s son, Mohammed, and Mr. Bagudu to lend money stolen from Nigeria back to Nigeria “with zero risks and at an enormous profit” by using proceeds of the security vote fraud to purchase hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. dollar-denominated Nigerian bonds, called Nigerian Par Bonds, NPBs.

Between 1998 and now, more than $3.6 billion dollars has been recovered through international efforts with different tranches linked to Mr. Bagudu alone.

The systematic plunder as well as the worldwide hunt for the stolen funds, worth billions of dollars, is reckoned to be one of the worst cases of kleptocracy and offshore shenanigans in the world.

The $21.7 million in the account of Mecosta at Standard Bank and the $1.6 million held in the name of Mohammed Abacha at HSBC were part of the stolen funds, American investigators said, and are believed to form the $23 million recovered by the NCA based on our analysis.

The NCA said it had transferred the recovered funds to the U.S. with the “ultimate intention” being the repatriation to Nigeria for the benefit of the people in the West African nation.

NCA said it would not answer our question if Nigeria was involved in a tripartite deal over this particular recovery. It also did not disclose the outstanding Abacha-linked assets being targeted for forfeiture in London.

However, PREMIUM TIMES understands from our Pandora Papers investigation that nearly 100 million euros kept in London investments accounts of Mr. Bagudu’s Blue family trusts and holdings are among the outstanding assets.

Mr. Page said the revelations about Mr. Bagudu “suggest he has held unto significant quantities of unexplained wealth accumulated in the Abacha years.”

Mr. Bagudu did not honor our request for his comment on this report, a consistent pattern since we started reporting his link to the Abacha kleptocracy.

Mohammed Abacha also did not reply to a text or answer calls to seek his comment.

Credit: Premium Times

BIG STORY

Appeal Court Nullifies Rape Conviction Of Lagos Doctor Femi Olaleye

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The Lagos appeal court has overturned the “rape” conviction of Femi Olaleye, managing director of Optimal Cancer Care Foundation. On Friday, the appellate court ruled that the lower court “erred” in its judgment.

Olaleye was arraigned in November 2022 on a two-count charge of “defilement of a child” and “sexual assault by penetration.”

He was convicted in October 2023 and sentenced to life imprisonment for “rape.”

However, the appeal court held that the lower court relied on “tainted” and “unreliable” evidence.

THE VERDICT

The three-member panel of the appeal court are Jimi Olukayode Bada, Mohammad Sirajo, and Folasade Ojo.

Bada read the lead judgment which was adopted by the two other justices.

The appeal court held that the lower court erred based on the “tainted” and “unreliable” evidence of Oluremi, the defendant’s wife, and the alleged survivor.

The appeal court stated that Oluremi’s conduct showed that she was motivated by greed and the desire to take over the appellant’s assets upon his incarceration.

The appellate court described Olaleye’s wife as a “tainted witness”.

The court also ruled that the lower court relied on the “hearsay evidence” of the other witnesses on the age of the alleged survivor.

The appellate court held that since none of the witnesses witnessed the birth of the alleged survivor, it was wrong for the lower court to rely on their testimonies.

The court ruled that the prosecution’s case that the alleged survivor was a 16-year-old child was bereft of evidence.

The court described the testimonies of the child forensic specialist, that of a medical doctor from the Mirabel Centre, and the investigating officer’s, as “worthless”.

The appellate court said the trial judge “interfered” in the proceedings by bridging the “yawning gaps” in the prosecution’s case.

The court held that the prosecution failed to present material witnesses such as two family members who witnessed Olaleye’s alleged confession.

The court said a trial within trial ought to have been conducted to ascertain the voluntariness of the appellant’s confessional statements while in police custody.

The court of appeal resolved all five issues in favour of the appellant.

The appeal court thereafter discharged and acquitted Olaleye.

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US-Based Nigerian May Get 20-Year Jail Term Over Money Laundry

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A United States-based Nigerian, Samson Omoniyi, who was arrested alongside eight others for alleged money laundering and fraud, may be sentenced to 20 years in prison if found guilty by US authorities.

This was contained in a press statement signed by the Office of Public Affairs of the US Department of Justice late Wednesday.

The statement noted that Omoniyi, alongside his accomplices, was indicted on Tuesday on allegations of conspiracy to engage in money laundering following their arrest across three jurisdictions in the US.

It further indicated that the defendants, who remain innocent until proven guilty by the court, operated a money laundering organisation to launder proceeds from fraud amounting to millions of US dollars, allegedly obtained from defrauding multiple citizens.

The statement read, “An indictment was unsealed yesterday (Tuesday) in Nashville, Tennessee. It charges nine members of a multi-state money laundering organisation with laundering millions of dollars derived from internet fraud, including business email compromise schemes. The nine defendants were arrested in a coordinated takedown across three jurisdictions.

“According to court documents, Samson A. Omoniyi, 43, of Houston; Misha L. Cooper, 50, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Robert A. Cooper, 66, of Murfreesboro; Carlesha L. Perry, 36, of Houston; Whitney D. Bardley, 30, of Florissant, Missouri; Lauren O. Guidry, 32, of Houston; Caira Y. Osby, 44, of Houston; Dazai S. Harris, 34, of Murfreesboro; and Edward D. Peebles, 35, of Murfreesboro, were charged with conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

“As alleged in the indictment, the defendants were members of a long-running money laundering organisation operating since approximately November 2016 in and around Tennessee, Texas, and across the country.”

The statement further stressed that the defendants used the structured organisation as a guise to launder the proceeds of their fraud and to enrich members of the syndicate.

“The conspirators allegedly structured the organisation so that recruiters or ‘herders’ recruited and directed participants or ‘money mules’ to launder money obtained from Internet frauds that targeted businesses and individuals in the United States and abroad.

“The defendants allegedly used sham and front companies to conceal the fraud proceeds and enrich the conspiracy members. The conspiracy allegedly agreed to launder more than $20 million in fraud proceeds,” it stated.

According to the statement, each of the defendants could be sentenced to 20 years in prison under the US Sentencing Guidelines as the maximum penalty for their offence.

“The defendants each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if convicted. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

“An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,” the statement concluded.

Earlier reports had it that two Nigerians, Anthony Ibekie and Samuel Aniukwu, were sentenced by a US federal jury to 30 years combined jail time for defrauding some US citizens of $3,500,000.

According to the US Justice Department, the duo had deceived their victims by telling them that they had received substantial inheritances that required some money to claim.

The duo was said to have requested their victims send money with a promise to refund them once the inheritances were claimed.

It was also noted that the duo carried out romance scams by establishing romantic relationships with their victims and demanding that they send money after building trust with them.

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BIG STORY

Australia Bans Social Media Use For Children Under-16

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Australia’s parliament on Thursday passed a world-first law banning social media for children under 16, putting tech companies on notice to tighten security before a cut-off date that’s yet to be set.

The ban came following the passage of a groundbreaking law in parliament.

The new law was drafted in response to what the Labor Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, described as a “clear, causal link between the rise of social media and the harm [to] the mental health of young Australians.”

“We want our kids to have a childhood and parents to know we have their backs,” Albanese told reporters afterwards.

The new law, passed by the Senate with 34 votes to 19, prohibits platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, X, and Reddit from allowing users under 16.

Companies found in violation could face fines of up to AU$50 million (US$32 million). YouTube has been excluded from the ban due to its educational content.

While the law has been hailed by some as a bold move to protect children, it has drawn criticism from academics, advocacy groups, and tech experts.

Concerns have been raised that the legislation could drive teenagers to unsafe spaces like the dark web or lead to increased isolation.

Questions about enforcement have also surfaced, with critics warning that rushed implementation could create privacy risks if companies require extensive personal data for age verification.

Amnesty International has recommended that the bill be reconsidered, arguing “ban that isolates young people will not meet the government’s objective of improving young people’s lives.”

The bill received over 15,000 public submissions in a single day, many opposing the measure, after tech billionaire Elon Musk drew attention to the proposal on X.

The law will take effect in 12 months, allowing time for the government to trial age-verification technologies.

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