Diezani Alison-Madueke
Oladimeji Ramon
The United States of America has given
the details of how a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs.
Diezani Alison-Madueke, allegedly laundered about $144m, using part of
the funds to purchase a yacht, landed properties, furniture and
artworks.
According to the US, while she held
sway as the Nigerian petroleum minister, Diezani, who was otherwise
known as “the Madam” or “Madam D,” led “a lavish and privileged
lifestyle,” spending “more than one million dollars on furniture,
artwork, and other furnishings purchased within the Southern District of
Texas, and shipped, in part, to London and Abuja, Nigeria.”
These were contained in a 91-page
“verified complaint” filed by the US Government before the US District
Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, where it is seeking
an order to forfeit funds and assets worth $144m linked to Diezani.
The US, in the “verified complaint”
signed by a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Elizabeth Crispino, said Diezani allegedly acquired the assets with
kickbacks from “an international conspiracy to obtain lucrative business
opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.”
The assets, the US stated, were acquired
between April 2010 and May 2015 when Diezani was “overseeing Nigeria’s
state-owned oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.”
Among the properties, which the US now
seeks to be forfeited, are a 65-metre motor yacht, named M/Y Galactica
Star; two properties known as 807 and 815 Cima Del Mundo Road,
Montecito, Calif; as well as funds in a couple of companies.
The US stated that Diezani, with the
help of and in conspiracy with two Nigerian businessmen, Kolawole
Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore, “laundered the proceeds of the illicit
business opportunities into and through the United States.”
In the court processes obtained by our
correspondent on Tuesday, the US detailed, using tables, the “living and
lifestyle expenses for Alison-Madueke.”
One table, tagged, ‘Rental Payments,’
showed how Aluko and his company, Tracon Investments Limited, helped
Diezani to make a total of at least £537,922 in rental payments for two
central London residences both located at 22 St. Edmunds Terrace, London
NW8 7QQ, where Diezani and her mother stayed between August 2011 and
January 2014.
Another table, tagged, ‘Transportation
Services’, showed how Aluko and his beneficially-owned company, TENKA,
helped Diezani to make at least £393,274.32 in payments to a car hire
company, the “Chauffeur Company”, while Omokore and his own company,
Energy Property Development Ltd., also paid at least £4,424.40 to the
“Chauffeur Company” to convey Diezani and her family about the UK
between December 2012 through at least July 2014.
The FBI agent, Crispino, stated, “Upon
information and belief, the above payments were made corruptly by, on
behalf of, or at the direction of Aluko and Omokore for the benefit of
Alison-Madueke and/or her family, in return for Alison-Madueke’s having
improperly influenced the award of the Forcados SAAs to AEDC and in
anticipation of or in return for her improperly influencing the award of
the Brass SAA.
“In particular, the director of the
Chauffeur Company has stated that in or around June 2014, he was
assaulted in the hallway outside of Alison-Madueke’s known residence at
Flat 19, 22 St. Edmunds Terrace, London NW8 7QQ, by two men known by the
director to be Alison-Madueke’s associates.
“This assault occurred as the director
of the Chauffeur Company was attempting to deliver a letter concerning
approximately £224,000 in unpaid services provided by his company to
Alison-Madueke.
“The director of the Chauffeur Company
has further stated that, upon hearing the commotion, Alison-Madueke
herself appeared and instructed her associates to settle the unpaid
bill.
“As the preceding table indicates,
roughly one month after the hallway assault, TENKA paid a total of
£135,361.48 to the Chauffeur Company.”
Crispino said Diezani’s assets were
liable to being forfeited “under 18 U.S.C. § § 981(a)(1)(A) and
981(a)(1)(C),” as they were “derived from, or traceable to the proceeds
of ‘specified unlawful activity,’ as that term is defined in 18 U.S.C. §
1956(c)(7), or a conspiracy to commit ‘specified unlawful activity,’
and as property involved in money laundering violations of 18 U.S.C. §§
1956 and 1957.”
Crispino stated that “Section 1956(a)(2)
prohibits transferring funds known to be the proceeds of unlawful
activity from a place outside the United States to a place in the United
States, with knowledge that the transfer is designed in whole or in
part to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of
the proceeds of a specified unlawful activity, including the proceeds of
an offense against a foreign nation involving ‘bribery of a public
official, or the misappropriation, theft, or embezzlement of public
funds by or for the benefit of a public official.”
Comments
Post a Comment