Through an application to register and enforce two orders from United Kingdom courts, the Department of Justice has secured a restraining order against more than $3 million in corruption proceeds located in the United States related to James Onanefe Ibori, the former governor of Delta State, announced Assistant Attorney General, Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director, John Morton.
The application, which was filed under seal on May 16, 2012, in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, seeks to restrain assets belonging to Ibori and Bhadresh Gohil, Ibori’s former English solicitor, that are proceeds of corruption.
Specifically, it seeks to restrain a mansion in Houston and two Merrill Lynch brokerage accounts. U.S. District Judge Lamberth granted the application and issued a restraining order under seal on May 21, 2012. The department was notified on Wednesday that its application to unseal the restraining order was granted.
The United States is working with the United Kingdom’s Crown Prosecution Service and the Metropolitan Police Service to forfeit these corruption proceeds.
According to the application, former Governor Ibori served as the governor of Delta State from 1999 to 2007, and misappropriated millions of dollars in Delta State funds. He laundered those proceeds through a myriad of shell companies, intermediaries and nominees in several jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, with the help of Gohil.
Although Nigeria’s constitution prohibits state governors from maintaining foreign bank accounts and serving as directors of private companies, Ibori and his associates accumulated millions of dollars in assets in the United Kingdom and the United States, according to the application.
Ibori was convicted in the United Kingdom of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced by a British court on April 18, 2012, to 13 years in prison. Gohil was also convicted in November 2010 of money laundering and prejudicing a money laundering investigation and was sentenced by a British court to 10 years in prison.
“Instead of working to benefit the people of the Nigerian Delta, Governor Ibori pilfered state funds and accumulated immense wealth in the process,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer.
“He conspired with Mr. Gohil to funnel millions of dollars in corruption proceeds out of Nigeria and into bank accounts and assets maintained in the names of shell companies and nominees. Through the Criminal Division’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, our message is clear: the United States will not be used as a safe haven for the ill-gotten gains of corrupt foreign officials.”
Meanwhile, the $15 million ‘bribe’ that erstwhile governor of Delta State, James Ibori allegedly paid to former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, is to be temporarily forfeited, according to a Tuesday order by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, according to an online newswire.
Also, the court ordered EFCC to publish the interim order of forfeiture in a national newspaper to allow anyone interested in the property to appear before the court to state, within 14 days, reasons why a final order of forfeiture should not be granted in favour of the Federal Government.
Rotimi Jacobs had filed the ex-parte application on behalf of the EFCC, listing the Federal Government, the Attorney General of the Federation and the EFCC as the plaintiffs, and the Central Bank of Nigeria as sole defendant.
The application for forfeiture was hinged on five grounds: first, that EFCC officials received the $15 million cash from an undisclosed agent of James Ibori in 2007 as bribe to compromise its investigation.
Two, that the commission on 26th of April 2007 deposited the said cash into the strong room No 1 of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Three, that James Ibori had since denied ever giving the said cash to the commission or any of its officers.
EFCC also argued that the money has remained unclaimed since April 2007 till date, and it has remained dormant in the strong room of CBN.
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