By News Punch Editor
The Government of the United States of America has made some drastic moves to seize $140 million in corruption-tainted assets of Nigerian oil executives found in the United States including an $80 million yacht the "Galactica Star", Yahoo News reports
According to Yahoo News, the yacht and a $50 million condominium overlooking New York's famed Central Park were among the riches tied to dirty contracts awarded by Nigeria's former oil minister between 2011 and 2015, the US Justice Department said statement.
"The United States is not a safe haven for the proceeds of corruption," acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco said.
"Corrupt foreign officials and business executives should make no mistake: if illicit funds are within the reach of the United States, we will seek to forfeit them and to return them to the victims from whom they were stolen."
The assets were purchased using proceeds of oil sector contracts awarded by Nigeria's former minister for petroleum resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who oversaw the state oil company, according to the Justice Department.
Prosecutors allege she accepted bribes from oil executives Kolawole Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore, who spent millions of dollars buying and furnishing London-area homes with artwork, furniture and other luxury items acquired in Texas.
The minister allegedly steered lucrative oil contracts to companies owned by Aluko and Omokore, which sold $1.5 billion worth of Nigerian crude.
They then used shell corporations and intermediaries to launder the funds through US banks and buy the assets which the Justice Department is now seeking to seize.
Under former President Barack Obama, the Justice Department in 2010 launched a "kleptocracy" initiative to recover the ill-gotten gains of corrupt foreign officials. The initiative has had mixed results but in 2014 collected a $500 million once held by the former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and his cronies.
 |
| US authorities plan to confiscate the "Galactica Star" a yacht owned by a Nigerian oil executive, in an effort to recoup funds earned through a dirty contracts awarde by Nigeria's former oil minister (AFP Photo/VALERY HACHE) |
“If you want to hire a yacht, you lease it for two weeks or whatever. You don’t go and sink funds into it at this time when Nigerian oil and gas sector is under all kinds of watch,” she said to Aluko in a recorded conversation.
But her warning was not heeded as Aluko went on to buy Galactica Star, a luxury yacht, for $80million.
The yacht, a stupendous luxury on water, was once rented by Jay Z and his wife, Beyonce, for close to a million dollars during a holiday last year. It also once hosted Beyonce’s 32nd birthday in 2013.
Both Aluko and Omokore are alleged to have paid bribes between 2011 and 2015 to Diezani who ensured that shell companies owned by the businessmen received billion-dollar contracts to sell Nigeria’s crude oil.
The oil swap contracts were a controversial barter arrangement which saw Nigeria use middlemen to sell crude oil in exchange for refined products. With local refineries under-performing, oil swap deals were used to shore up local demand for petroleum products.
Between 2010 and 2014, under Diezani’s watch, Nigeria was estimated to have channelled over 352 million barrels of oil worth a total of $35 billion into oil swap deals.
But with the contracts mostly opaque, Nigeria reportedly lost more than $900 million in crude oil swap deals between 2009 and 2012.
The deals came under severe scrutiny with former Central Bank Governor, now Emir Muhammadu Sanusi, describing them “not properly structured, monitored and audited.”
President Buhari cancelled the oil swap arrangement in November 2015, seven months after taking office.
No comments