WIREDGOV

A former Nigerian politician and his criminal associates have been ordered to pay back more than £130 million following a financial investigation by the National Crime Agency in one of the largest ever confiscation orders issued in the UK.

James Ibori, who was a governor of Delta State in Nigeria, was sentenced to 13 years in February 2012 after pleading guilty to a string of offences relating to a conspiracy to defraud nearly £50 million from Nigerian states.

His UK based solicitor, Badresh Babulal Gohil, was also sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2010 after being convicted of fraud and money laundering offences.

NCA financial investigators started confiscation proceedings after they were jailed following a Metropolitan Police operation.

They evidenced that Ibori had an assessed criminal benefit figure of almost £116 million, and the judge ordered him to repay £101,514,315.21 at a confiscation hearing in Southwark Crown Court.

Gohil was found to have benefitted of more than £42,424,037.01 from his criminal activity, and the judge ordered him to repay £28,191,787.15.

Ibori has to pay back the confiscation sum or will be imprisoned for a further eight years. Gohil has six months to repay or face a further six years imprisonment.

Udoamaka Onuigbo, who was financially linked to Ibori’s business dealings in Nigeria, was convicted of money laundering offences in 2010. The Judge decided her criminal benefit was more than £10.2 million on Friday and ordered her to pay £2,649,959. The amount was settled following the hearing.

NCA Branch Commander Suzanne Foster recently said:

“This very significant amount of money was confiscated following an extensive investigation. Ibori was powerful and influential, but he was not above the law. Now the life he built from criminal enterprises has been taken from him.

“This confiscation order demonstrates our determination to pursue criminally obtained assets that have been invested in the UK. Ibori’s funds will be returned to the Nigerian government where they will be reinvested into public services.

“Our work to repatriate these sums shows that we do not stop at the point of conviction, and the NCA will do everything we can to strip criminals of their assets.

“We will continue to work with partners to tackle the global threat of money laundering, and target anyone that undermines the integrity of our financial system.”

The investigation into James Ibori was started by the Metropolitan Police in 2005.

Met officers investigated allegations of corruption and theft of state funds while Ibori was Governor for Delta State. A focus was on the fraudulent sale and purchase of shares in Ibori’s mobile phone company ‘V mobile’ to Delta State and Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria.

Money was also found to have been laundered by Ibori’s UK solicitor Bhadresh Gohil through a myriad of offshore companies and bank accounts as well as UK-based entities.

These confiscation orders follow two already granted for Ibori’s associates. Elias Preko, a financial advisor to Ibori who was convicted of money laundering in 2013, was ordered to pay £7.3 million in 2019 or face a further 10 years in prison as part of the NCA’s financial investigation.

Rowland Nakanda, Ibori’s children’s uncle was convicted of money laundering in June 2015. Nakanda had a certified benefit of £683,641.94, and was ordered to pay almost £143,000 or face a further 12 months imprisonment.