US seizes $458m Abacha loot

Less than a week after President Goodluck
Jonathan honoured the late Head of State, Gen. Sani
Abacha, with an award for “his contributions to the
nation,” the United States has ordered a freeze on $
458m in assets stolen by the former dictator and
his accomplices.
AFP quoted the Justice Department as saying on
Wednesday that 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 to recover more than $550m 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 frozen assets,
along with additional assets named in the complaint,
represented the “proceeds of corruption” during and
after the military regime of Abacha, who became
Head of State 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 sent a “clear message”
that the United States was “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 $313m in
two bank accounts in the Bailiwick of Jersey and $
145m 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 $100m, 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 pretence 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 government to buy Nigerian
government bonds at vastly inflated prices from a
company controlled by Bagudu and Mohammed
Abacha. That operation created an illegal windfall of
more than $282m.
In addition, Abacha and his co-conspirators
allegedly extorted more than $11m 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 US 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.