$5 Billion Fraud: The Hunt For Sani Abacha's Crime Family

the year was 1998 a lady had just booked a flight that would take her from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia she had taken her time to prepare for this trip because a lot depended on it this trip was coming days after the country lost its leader the people were still mourning so it was then a surprise to see that the lady embarking on this trip was the late president's wife this was where things got into interesting while checking in at the airport the late president s bacha's Widow had 38 pieces of luggage this raised a lot of questions but it was when the police decided to search her bags to see what she was taking with her to Saudi Arabia that they uncovered the most shocking thing in the history of corruption these 38 suitcases were stuffed with loads of cash Miriam vacher was smuggling money out of the country in suitcases this alarming Discovery soon caught the attention of the new military government whose money was she running with how much money is she running away with is she trying to secure the money stolen by the abacha government this series of questions must have been welling up in the minds of the investigators as they launched what would be the most interesting hunt for the infamous abacha loot I spent this past couple of weeks pouring over the cut documents from all the trials that followed the investigations I wanted to understand how he did it who helped him was there a Syndicate most importantly what happened to the return font here with me and names bank records and other documents that will help us answer these important questions I promise you it's not the usual aracha conspiracy so buckle up because it's going to be a wild ride General s Bacha was one of the most controversial leaders in Nigerian history after helping bring back the military in the 1983 C that installed Mohammad barari as Nigeria's military head of state he would again participate in another C 20 months later to remove the same bhari for another General now Ibrahim banga but it was the 1993 political crisis that brocked Nigeria following the June 12 election that gave way to the catastrophic regime of s abacha having seized power however abacha promised that there would be a transition to a civilian government within a few years those few years before that transition would turn out to be the most difficult for the Nigerian people any attempt to test our will will be decisively dealt with from randomly jailing activists and critics to a massive Crackdown on media and Civil Rights group abacha did every Unthinkable thing you can imagine his most brutal moment saw him execute Niger data activist and playright Ken sarwa this event had a disastrous effect on Nigeria as the International Community ostracized the country for human rights violations but it wasn't all that gloomy while his human rights violation were well documented abacha's Administration also oversaw an increase in the country's foreign exchange reserves from $494 million in 1993 to 9. 6 billion by the middle of 1997 and reportedly reduced the externed debt of Nigeria from 36 billion in 1993 to $27 billion by 1997 there are some in Nigeria today who still believe abacha to be a good economic manager his supporters claim he stabilized the exchange rate at 22 Nar per dollar even though the unofficial rate was 80 Nair per dollar spoilers a lot this policy benefited many of his chosen Associates who were buying dollars at the official rate and selling it in the black market more on that later now after aacha dealt with the political crisis of 1993 he placed his loyalist in key positions to ensure there was no real threat to his power his heavy-handed approach to criticism also meant media houses were not turning their search light on him and his family this was when the Looting began in 2014 the US forfeited more than 48 million one of the largest forfeitures in history these were proceeds of corruption hidden in bank accounts all around the world bank accounts owned by former Nigeria dictator General s abacha and his co- conspirators one of the US assistant attorney generals Leslie R Caldwell of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said quote rather than serve his country General Bacher used his public office in Nigeria to loot millions of dollars the justice department official revealed that the US government was forfeiting this 480 million in corruption proceeds to be used for the benefit of the Nigerian people but why was this happening now how did this money even end up in these Western countries that usually whine about the high levels of corruption in Africa the Judgment that ordered this huge forfeiture was the result of a civil forfeiture complaint the Department of Justice filed in November 2013 against more than $625 million in the largest kleptocracy for fure Action brought in the Department's history these are the court documents from that lawsuit it read here in the United States district court for the District of Colombia United States of America asset for feature money laundry section Criminal Division United States Department of Justice yeah this includes approximately $33 million into bank accounts in the bwick of Jersey $144 million in two bank accounts in France and three bank accounts in the United Kingdom and island with at least $27 million the investigation conducted by the FBI led to this damning document that was then tendered at the United States District Court of Colombia the documents which I have right here with me implicated the late son of the Nigerian leader Ibrahim abacha his second son Muhammad abacha his associate abaka tiu bodu former National Security advisor is Mila guazo associate of the abacha family alhaji amadu da then Minister of Finance Chief antthony Annie there is also lawyer and Associate of the abacha family David omaru these people were accused of using funny offshore companies to divert billions of dollars of Nigerian State funds into their private accounts the document highlighted how in one instance abacha Muhammad bodu and others systematically embeded buled public funds worth billions of dollars from the Central Bank of Nigeria on the pretense that the funds were meant to be used for National Security the CBN not wanting to stand in the way of National Security dispersed the funds after which abacha and bodu moved them overseas in all more than $2 billion was stolen from the Central Bank of Nigeria alone but how was abacha able to loot this sort of money with no one finding out I mean the wife tried running with 38 boxes and she got caught right so how did he do it according to these detailed investigations abacha would direct his National Security advisor is Mila guazo who doubled as his bagman to present him with false funding request for security operations or equipment which were within his powers to authorize in one of the memor wrting to aater by guazo he urgently demanded money from the Nigerian treasury to fight critics overseas in is what quote America has gone bizer and seems to leave no stone unturned in ridiculing this nation in the 1994 memo written by isazo he demanded that $30 million be wired to a Geneva account abacha then signed off on the letters and forwarded them to the CBN which was then forced to disburse the funds in all abacha endorsed well over 64 security vote letters Each of which resulted in the withdrawal of huge sums of money from the CBN at times the funds were directly remitted in Travelers checks and to avoid delays cash was also given by the Central Bank of Nigeria to ISM a guazo who then took the money to General s abacha's house at the house Mohammad abacha the dictator son would wait to launder the money through Nigerian Banks or by Nigerian or foreign businessmen to Offshore accounts belonging to Muhammad abacha ABA abacha Abdul Kadir abacha and their associate Abu Baka ATU bodu according to these investigations there were instances of about 36 transfers totaling 386 million us where the monies were transferred directly from the central bank of Nigeria by wire transfers to bank accounts abroad held by offshore companies belonging either to members of the abacha criminal organization or to Nigerian or foreign businessmen who later remitted the same sums to members of this organization on one particular interesting occasion abacha and one of his associates an made the government purchase non-performing government debt from a company controlled by bodu and Mohammad abacha at highly inflated prices they reportedly generate a profit of over $282 million from this deal during his regime abacha exercised full control over Government Contracting Award of oil and gas concessions and other lucrative government Ventures this control was used by The Syndicate to seek bribes from foreign companies in November 199 93 for example abacha stopped payment on Nigerian government contracts with foreign companies including the dumes group a French civil engineering firm although the dumes group would later restructure itself as a Nigerian based Company dumes nigeran Limited it was unable to collect approximately $469 million in connection with this contract investigations revealed that an attorney an associate of the abacha family advised the owners of dumes that payments could be restarted if they agreed to kick back 25% of those payments to their B of family dumes agreed with this Arrangement the company would later enter into an agreement with Allied network limited a Nigerian corporation that was created by the said associate of the aach family to receive Kickbacks on behalf of this family by December of that year this abacha associate who who went by the name umaru opened an account in the name of Allied network limited at Union Banker prev ubp in Geneva Switzerland this account was used to Fel Kickback payments to the Bacha organization dumes opened an account at ubp to receive the payments from the Nigerian government once they were restarted between August 16 1996 on May 22 1998 the CBN transferred money to the dumes account at ubp in Geneva out of this amount $97 million or 25% of the set contract sum was then transferred by dumes to Allied network limited for distribution to members of this abacha organization sometime in late 1997 Mohammad abacha received some payments from this same dumes this payment was intended for Allied network limited now as part of their looting mechanism aach bman is M Au guazu persuaded the late dictator to allow him to flood the market with US dollars to maintain a stable exchange rate with permission granted guazu bought $100 million from the Central Bank of Nigeria at the official rate of 22 naara per dollar and sold at the market rate of 84 Nair per dollar keeping the profit but the illegal activities didn't stop here on December 9th 1995 the Nigerian president's wife Mariam abacha went on television to publicize the start of her immunization program this was her moment to give back to the people as the mother of the nation who cared for her children she was saddened by the fact that Nigeria was now isolated and children were dying from curable diseases such as tuberculosis polio me menitis and deia this harmonization program was a way to give Nigerian children a Fighting Chance what Mr abacha failed to mention however was that her son Muhammad and his businessman sidekick abub Baka bhuru were siphoning off $66 million from the $111 million purchase of vaccines from the French FM pxo Marios according to this investigation the money was stashed away in Western banks with the perfectly legal help of a certain David Jones David Jones is a British businessman whom Muhammad described as a family friend for 20 years Jones lived in Hampshire and was a director of Smith and TS a company based in Bor Hill Street South London guess what Muhammad abacha was a principal first shareholder in this company in a document prepared by mohammad's lawyer MrJones is described as general s bacher's manager in the records of the US City Bank where theacher Brothers had an account for more than 10 years MrJones is shown to have the power of attorney over Muhammad's private account through which tens of millions of dollars were moved in April 1996 City Bank records show a transfer to Smith and tires of 300 $1,000 a further $500,000 went to Smith and tires in 1999 from Harbor engineering another about company well back to our vacine story so it turns out the vacine transactions did raise a few eyebrows among London Bankers in fact in 1995 Claudia nazelle of City Bank in Barkley Square emailed quote I just do not feel right about this deal it has typical characteristics of a 41 fraud sound sound like wrong to you yeah there is a copy of the email her colleague David heo said the client is a prominent and long-standing Nigerian customer yeah this her colleague went further to say he felt they needed to be specific and clear and diplomatic in the way the president J conin about potential money laundering scams despite this legitimate concerns raised the deals went through the stolen funds were mostly sent to accounts held in far away countries in Switzerland alone abacha had over 140 accounts holding more than $750 million in 11 banks in Lenin he had $100 million in three Banks lenberg $630 million UK $450 million in 20 accounts held in 11 Banks I know your wondering but who are the others that made up The Syndicate it couldn't have been a Bater and his family alone yeah the list is a long [Music] one while going through Paper Trails left by The abacha Syndicate investigators uncovered names of foreign Banks and bankers who help facilitate the hundreds of transactions but who are these folks let's go to the associates we have Gabriel katri a swis Israeli Banker Mrkatri was a financial advisor to several heads of state in the Middle East in Africa he was convicted in November 2009 for abetting what was described as a criminal Enterprise by ABA abacha Mrkatri was later fined $10 million and given a non- custodia sentence by the Swiss investigating magistrate and then we have gibba chory Mrchory is is a Nigerian born businessman of lebanes descent he's a founder of the chory group whose multi-billion dollar assets span construction manufacturing real estate and hotels according to court documents in the 1990s MrChri helped set up accounts with SG re Bank in Geneva for their B of family enabling them to benefit from illegal transfers of over $120 million from the Central Bank of Nigeria and secured immunity from prosecution he was convicted in 2000 of money laundry and aiding criminal organization he later paid $600,000 in fines to the court in Geneva Switzerland and refunded $66 million to the Nigerian government and then we have Abu Baka bodu according to court documents Mrbodu was perhaps the most prolific bagman of The abacha Syndicate when addressing the court one of the American investigators said quote abubakar atiu bodu was an associate of general abacha and his sons who participated in the conspiracy to steal and lunder hundreds of millions of dollars among other things bodu played an instrumental role in setting up and executing the complicated Financial transactions used to launder the proceeds of the conspiracy and of cour MrBodo was involved with all the offshore front companies and bank accounts from from the British Virgin Islands to Ireland to Switzerland Germany Singapore England Paris gwenzi and Jersey used to steal and Loan the billions of dollars belonging to Nigeria under the aacha regime he acted as a director and in some cases as a signatory or prime beneficiary well after the return of democracy this same man has served as a senator and then governor of Nigeria's Northwestern K State he currently serves as minister of budget and economic planning well I hope the honorable Minister and DSs as well as the police or whoever gets to see this video will know that I'm only narrating history to document things that did happen so that future Generations will get to know what happened during the aacha regime everything I have shared about this particular character is already public knowledge I felt I should still say that for my on safety so cheers guys our next character is this guy David omaru in an affidavit filed on November 18 2013 by the US Department of Justice this man was said to have allegedly acted as the official extortionist and money launderer of their bers he was illegal advisor and Associate of their Bacher family the court paper state that he facilitated the payment of illegal commissions to the family in return for securing the repayments of debts of some $470 million owed by the Nigerian government to domes Nigeria PLC a French company controlled by Andre Cel remember the omaru that help facilitate the transaction between DZ and the setting Allied network limited yeah this is him Mromaru has since become a distinguished senator of the federal republic of Nigeria again DSS or whoever is in charge here I'm only you know trying to narrate history so you understand cheers guys other people on this list include Dano jurov a business associate of Gard chory he was found guilty of money laundry in December 2000 by order of a Geneva Court we have amadu da who was an associate of the abacha family he operated the sunshine bu the change the court in Washington was told that MrDar participated in the conspiracy by moving Criminal proess out of Nigeria to a Cy controll in England and by transferring a criminal proceeds into and out of the United States to accounts controlled by the abacha family and then there's Mark Riser recommended to Mrabacha as an experienced Financial Consultant MrRiser set up several accounts held by intermediary offshore companies with SG R Bank in sa in Geneva which facilitated the illegal transfers of some $50 million to Aba Muhammad abacha and their business associates according to Africa Confidential and then there's Jin DEA Regional operations manager for Adu and orex advisory services in Nigeria MrDEA was said to have agreed to transfer illegal commissions on Nigerian oil contracts of over $76 million to accounts linked to Aba and Muhammad AER there's Richard granard def far a founding director and to in command at and or advisory Services Mrdef facilitated the illegal transfer of funds from the CBN to accounts held by Mrabacha and his son Muhammad abacha and then there's this Indian Raj AAS bani the Royal Court of Jersey seized $26. 5 million from Mrbani an Indian in 2011 after having determined he was guilty of money laundry offences the case arose out of Jesse's investigation into the activities of Mrsaacha Mrbani was said to have laundered the money through a jersey branch of the Bank of India according to jessey court documents he made a fortune from selling vehicles to the Nigerian government under two separate contracts in 1996 and 1997 through a Panamanian company named tataa overseas sales and services which was in reality a front company for him CT papers showed that the true purchase prices of the Vehicles were inflated by a record 400 and 500% at the behest of MrBacha and Mohamed Bubba ma he was reportedly sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for the money laundry offenses and then we have some ministers and security officers who participated in this money Heist as well among them are Anthony Annie MrAnnie held the position of Nigeria's Minister of Finance under General s Bacha according to these court documents he authorized the disol of Nigerian government funds in forance of the security vote fraud and debt buyback fraud in April 1997 MrAnnie ordered the CBN to transfer $228 million in two tranches to accounts held in the name of Eagle Alliance and Morgan procurement two of the stealing Machinery controlled by Mrbodu the court documents show that these transactions did occur on or about April 15th 1997 and April 22nd 1997 the respective amounts transferred were $141 million into and out of a correspondent bank account at City Bank in New York to Goldman Sachs in zurri Switzerland another was $141 million into and out of a correspondent bank account at City Bank New York still to Goodman saxs in Zurich Switzerland another member of The Syndicate was the famous is a guazo Mrguazo held the position of National Security advisor under the regime of MrsBacher he participated in the conspiracy to steal and launder hundreds of millions of dollars the investigators said among other things guo prepared and executed the first paperwork that caused the CBN to release hundreds of millions of dollars what of us UK and Nigerian currency as part of the security vote fraud for instance in a letter addressed to General s abacha on August 20th 1996 Mrguazo fely stated that quote in light of the current political situation in the country coupled with the increase in security operations there is need for a lot of funds to handle the challenges outlined above such that I require 350 million Nara plus $30 million and15 million please consider the desperate need and approve end of quote this man must be super creative to have forged about 60 such letters each getting approval incredible talent I must say and then there is Dan he was the subject of an International arrest warrant issued by France for money laundry MrDan was said to have prided over negotiations for the $6 billion gas export plant at bony Island which was under investigation by the US France British and the Nigerian authorities he was the former Nigerian minister of petroleum under the regime of s abacha and was found guilty of money laundry by French Court in 2007 then there's buba Mara MrMara who was the den Nigeria's defense advisor to the United Nations was involved in negotiating the two contracts Mrbani inflated in 1996 and 1997 the total sum was approximately 184 million milon but in truth the vehicles were worth less than $40 million the proceeds were paid to accounts controlled by Mrbani in Jersey out of which approximately $100 million was paid to accounts in Switzerland connected with MrSAA Bacher and MrMara interestingly MrMara is the current chairman of the National Drg law and enforcement agency the ndla again cheers guys you're my heroes what can I say we have another associate of his known as Paul oguma who was the former CBN Chief Mrauma was reportedly instructed by General s Bacher and Mrguazo to make several illegal transfers of funds from the CBN to accounts they controlled for instance in a letter dated November 30th 1994 Mrgu fely stated that quote $100 million are requested to combat an economy that was deflected and distorted through the black market abacha swiftly endorsed the security votes letter with his signature thereby approving the disbursement of the requested funds the Endor letter was then sent to the CBN the CBN then disos the said funds as directed but L auma the CBN Chief knew that using this security vote letters to take money from the CBN violated what the CBN had described as Nigeria's accepted government procedure the proper government procedures requireed the Minister of Finance and the accountant General to each approve dis boosement by Nigeria's budget the security vote withdrawals were not properly approved by both the Minister of Finance and the accountant General and were also not included in Nigeria's budget for the relevant fiscal years well who cares what the law says the general gets whatever the general wants right well with no concern for the plight of the Nigerian people this family business of looting the national treasury was going great until abacha died mysteriously and then the house of cards came crashing to the floor it was September 1999 when SS lawyer enrio Morini answered a phone call that will keep him up for the next 20 years president uun obas had heard about mon somehow and the Nigerian government wanted his help as a matter of urgency so oas's newly installed Administration sent a high ranking government official to Geneva in Switzerland to recruit this lawyer this government official called Morini in the middle of the night and asked to meet the job was simple at least they thought Morini was taxed with getting hold of the money stolen by aater between 1993 and his death in 1998 to get started the Nan police handed him the details of a few closed Swiss bank accounts which appeared to be holding some of the money abacha and his associates had stolen according to monei a preliminary investigation published by the police in November 1998 found that more than $1.

5 billion that is 1. 1 bill million was stolen by a Bacher and his associates armed with the documents showing the history of the accounts he took the issue to the Swiss attorney general from here the dance began Mrmonini successfully argued that the bach family and their Associates formed a criminal organization this was critical because it opened up more options for how the authorities could deal with their bank accounts the Attorney General issued a general alert to all the banks in Switzerland demanding that they disclose the existence of any accounts opened under their Bacha names and alliances within 48 Hours 95% of the banks and other financial institutions declared what they had which seemed to belong to their bacha's family this would uncover a web of bank accounts all over the world Mrmon reportedly helped the Nigerian governments in their battle to secure their bachelor and return the money home but he didn't do this out of the goodness of his heart he had agreed to a commission of 4% on the money sent back to Nigeria well while finding the money was relatively easy and quick Mrmonini would soon realize that getting it back to Nigeria was not going to be that easy or quick [Music] according to this Swiss lawyer theaters were fighting like dogs they appealed just about everything the prosecution team did the goal was probably to delay the process for as long as possible the family hired dozens of expensive high class lawyers in every jurisdiction where the family and their Associates were being pursued reports claim that more than $12 million was estimated to have gone to paying these lawyers in the United Kingdom alone the family allegedly spent about $8 million on the biggest of solitos to help fight the Nigerian government in fact in some instances the family reportedly tried to use blackmail on the investigators by at the end of it all they lost well not entirely for allegedly helping their father plunder Nigeria of an estimated $5 billion in the90s moham Med and ABA abacha and other relatives of the late dictator s abacha were rewarded by the Nigerian government according to this report a secret deal between the government and theaters demanded the family to return part of the loot in exchange for Perpetual immunity against prosecution this deal kept classified for months was personally approved by President good Lu Jonathan in July 2014 and jointly authored by the Attorney General Mohamad adok the terms of the agreement was later obtained by premium times and other news outlets in the country the base of the said agreement is for the abacha family to cooperate with Federal authorities to have the stolen funds repatriated in exchange for clemency on receipt of the assets Nigeria will quote end any and all legal proceedings and investigations against the settling parties referring to the family the government will again recognize properties owned by the family in Nigeria the agreement says further details in the agreement revealed that the federal republic of Nigeria will withdraw any and all civil proceedings against the settling parties another Clause said federal government will end without any finding of liability or guilt any and all proceedings of whatever kind including criminal civil or administrative proceedings contemplated or pending in any Court in Nigeria the government also decided to release their passport and allow them travel at will basically ending the case against the aacha family the Nigerian government agreed to this secret deal as a sort of ple Bain to have the abacha family drop his case and allow the money to be repatriated Geneva prosecutors also closed their own cases against the Bacha so with all charges dropped the monies have been returning home bit by bit with every Administration getting his share of theacher windfall but what has happened with all these monies the federal high court in Abuja in the landmark judgment has ordered the disclosure of the spending details of about 5 billion do of their Bach by the governments of former president Jonathan and mammad buari the court ordered the government of President Bobo to disclose the the exact amount of money stolen by General s Bacha from Nigeria and the total amount of abacha loot recovered and all agreements signed on Sim by the governments of former president y Jonathan and barari the total amount of the looted funds recovered from this late head of state general s vacher in the past 24 years has been put at 3.