UK holds on to £211m Abacha loot, awaits Nigeria, US

The United Kingdom (UK) has seized the latest discovery of £211million (N82billion) looted by the late head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha.

The UK government said that it would not release the laundered fund until Nigeria and the US reached a distribution arrangement

The money was laundered through a Jersey bank in the United States (US) into the Channel Islands, which was recovered by the British Government.

The Channel Islands are a group of British dependency islands in the English Channel, off the coast of France.

Abacha was Nigeria’s head of state between 1993 until his death in 1998.

According to a British daily, Metro, the money was put in accounts held in Jersey by Doraville Properties Corporation, a British Virgin Islands company.

The newspaper reported previously that the money was being held by the government until the authorities in Jersey, the US and Nigeria reach an agreement on how it should be distributed.

The report explained that any money that Jersey does keep will be put into the Criminal Confiscation Fund, which is used to pay for a variety of projects.

In the past, the fund has been used for the new police station and developments at La Moye Prison. It is expected that even more money held by Doraville is likely to be seized and paid into the Civil Asset Recovery Fund in the future.

Attorney-General Robert MacRae said: “In restraining the funds at the request of the United States of America, through whose banking system the funds were laundered prior to arriving here, and in achieving the payment of the bulk of the funds into the Civil Asset Recovery Fund, Jersey has once again demonstrated its commitment to tackling international financial crime and money laundering.”

In 2014, at the request of the US authorities, the Island’s attorney-general applied for, and the Royal Court granted, a restraining order over the Jersey bank account balance of Doraville.

The purpose of the restraining order was to preserve the money until a final civil asset recovery order could be registered in the Royal Court.

Doraville applied to the Royal Court for the restraint order to be discharged, but the court dismissed the application in 2016.

Then in 2017, Doraville challenged the decision, taking the case to Jersey’s Court of Appeal. That challenge was again rejected. Finally, following the decision of Jersey’s Court of Appeal, Doraville made an application to appeal against the restraint order before the Privy Council – Jersey’s ultimate appellate court.

In February 2018, the Privy Council announced its rejection of this final legal challenge.

Last week, solicitor-general Mark Temple gave a presentation in Vienna, Austria, about Doraville at a United Nations (UN) conference on corruption.

He said: “The conference of the States Parties to the UN convention against corruption is an important international forum concerned with anti-corruption measures and asset returns.”