Halt US Government Settlement Deal with the Family of a Notorious Looter
By Emmanuel Ogebe
A day after Nigeria’s presidential election petition court heard pleas from his lawyers for forgiveness of his drug-related indiscretions, newly inaugurated Nigerian President Bola Tinubu threw shame to the wind by nominating a brother money launderer as a Cabinet minister. Tinubu was subject to a $460,000 forfeiture for what US District Court Judge John Nordberg termed “narcotic trafficking” in a 1993 judgment stemming from Tinubu’s time in Chicago https://www.premiumtimesng.com/features-and-interviews/565221-2023-tinubus-chicago-affair-that-wont-go-away.html?tztc=1
The appointment of former Kebbi state Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu is a slap in the face of victims of Gen. Abacha’s ‘90s reign of terror and Nigerians as a whole. This is because his involvement in laundering the looted funds should automatically disqualify him from occupying public office as a deterrent. Appointing him trivializes the trauma of Abacha’s uncompensated victims. Bagudu was bagman to Gen. Abacha, Nigeria’s military dictator between 1993 and 1998 who according to Transparency International, stole about $5 billion from the Nigerian people – at the time the world’s biggest heist.
His financial crimes were such that even after five successive governments since Gen. Abacha’s 1998 death, and after the recovery of billions of dollars, hundreds of embezzled millions are still abroad. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/03/abacha-loot-how-much-did-the-late-head-of-state-steal/amp/
As the compensation claims of over 100 victims of Nigeria’s police-brutality protests of October 2020 are being belatedly mass-buried, the father of all money laundering is being resurrected into a federal-government position. If Bagudu could loot billions while not in government, what will happen now?
Tinubu’s Campaign slogan was “Renewed Hope.” If Bagudu — whose family members are currently spending millions of dollars in a 10-year legal battle claiming Nigeria’s €200 million stashed abroad as theirs – is worthy of a ministerial appointment, Nigeria’s ruling party’s slogan should be “Renewed Hoax.’
Incidentally, the nomination came on a day Nigerians were protesting Tinubu’s recent 300 percent fuel hikes as a result of the removal of a fuel subsidy leading to spiraling inflation. Despite our call on the national assembly and security agencies to halt this ignominious and insensitive nomination, Tinubu ordered the senators not to raise objections.
Sen. Tinubu came to power with the worst corruption profile of any Nigerian ever, and it appears he will sustain it. Already, the new policy changing dollar remittances from Nigerians abroad to naira before delivery has been called money laundering by even Gen. Abacha’s Minister of Finance, Anthony Ani. In other words, the dollar remittance is retained abroad but delivered in Naira by the Nigerian banks to the receivers.
This is like the Muslim “Hawala” system of paying debts over long distances without carrying units of currency. Agents in separate countries transfer money without any physical money actually moving. It’s an alternative remittance channel that exists outside of traditional banking systems and is not conducive for a central bank and certainly not an economy that is susceptible to looting and terror-financing such as in Nigeria.
I call on the U.S. government to permanently forgo any further settlement talks with the Bagudus. The appointment is clearly a middle finger at America’s justice system and the Biden administration needs to end this embarrassment. Returning Nigeria’s money to the Bagudus is actually aiding and abetting a quarter century heist!
I urge the election petition court to speedily render judgment before there is nothing left of Nigeria. On Aug. 23, Tinubu inaugurated Bagudu as Minister of Budget for one of Africa’s largest budgets. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-23/us-targeted-his-assets-nigeria-s-made-him-budget-minister
What’s his expertise and qualification to be Chief Financial Officer for Africa’s largest economy?
Per US District Court Judge John Bates in August of 2014, the US government took control of more than $480 million looted by former Nigerian dictator Abacha and his clique. The money stolen during Abacha’s de facto presidency was stashed in various banks around the world but will be returned to the Nigerian people, Bates ruled. https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-nigeria-assets/u-s-takes-control-of-480-mln-stolen-by-nigerian-dictator-abacha-idUSL2N0QD23D20140807
According to Bates: “The process of using security votes letters “to take [funds] from the [Central Bank of Nigeria] violated what the [Central Bank of Nigeria] has described as ‘accepted government procedures.’” Id. ¶ 27. “The proper procedure required the Minister of Finance and the Accountant-General to each approve disbursements in accordance with Nigeria’s budget.” Id. The security votes letters at issue were not properly approved “and were also not included in Nigeria’s budget for the relevant fiscal years.” Id. After General Abacha’s death, Nigeria established a Special Investigation Panel, “which found that General Abacha and his co- conspirators had used the false security votes letters to steal and defraud more than $2 billion in public funds, including: (1) at least $1.1 billion and £413 million pounds sterling (GBP) in cash; (2) at least $50,456,450 and £3,500,000 GBP in traveler’s checks; and (3) at least $386,290,169 through wire transfers.” Id. ¶ 29.
After the funds were disbursed from the Central Bank of Nigeria, bank staff and “other individuals known and unknown to the United States” would deliver the funds to National Security Advisor Gwarzo at his residence. Id. ¶ 31. “Gwarzo and others acting at his direction would [then] repackage the currency in secure bags and…deliver it to General Abacha at his residence.” Id. “General Abacha, or those acting at his direction, [then] delivered more than $700 million of these funds to [General Abacha’s son] Mohammed Abacha in bags or boxes full of cash.” Id. ¶ 32. Mohammed Abacha, in turn, gave that cash to Bagudu, who “arranged for the money to be transferred to accounts controlled by Bagudu and Mohammed Abacha in foreign countries.” Id. ¶ 33. “In order to move the money overseas,” Bagudu deposited the money, which he referred to as his “‘cash swaps,’” in two local Nigerian banks, and then he “and/or Mohammed Abacha” instructed those banks to transfer the funds to accounts overseas owned by Mohammed Abacha and Bagudu. Id. ¶ 34. “Transfers included deposits into accounts in the name of [defendant corporations]” under the control of Bagudu and Mohammed Abacha. Id. ¶¶ 33–34. “[A]t least $137 million” of these funds were “transported into and out of the United States.” Id. ¶ 35. The complaint describes various specific transactions in support of these allegations. Id. ¶ 35(a)–(f). And as discussed below, the funds were later pooled with funds from the second scheme and then laundered and transferred to defendant investment portfolios. See id. ¶¶ 52–93.
The second scheme, referred to as the “Debt Buy-Back Fraud,” began in 1996, when Bagudu and others arranged for the Nigerian government, with General Abacha’s approval, to repurchase its own debt from Mecosta—a company owned by Bagudu and Mohammed Abacha—at a price significantly higher than what Nigeria would have paid on the open market. Id. ¶¶ 36–44.” https://cases.justia.com/federal/district-courts/district-of-columbia/dcdce/1:2013cv01832/163245/79/0.pdf?ts=1426843689
On my last day in court as the presidential litigation hearings closed, Tinubu’s lawyers implored, “the Chicago forfeiture was 30 years ago. Even the Bible says, ‘go and sin no more.’”
It was a message their client apparently didn’t get when he appointed a mass launderer with a current €200 million forfeiture (part of USDOJ’s self-described “largest ever kleptocracy” seizure) as budget minister. Who says international crime doesn’t pay?
With an appointment from Nigeria and a settlement from America, Bagudu is proof that if you set your mind to global crime, you can achieve great things.
Emmanuel Ogebe is a US-based lawyer and Nigeria pro-democracy advocate with the US Nigeria Law Group in Washington, D.C. He was recently named Human Rights Advocate of the Year 2023 by Top Flyers Magazine.
