A whopping £211,000,000 (about N120billion) belonging to late General Sani Abacha has been seized from a Jersey bank account in the Channel Islands.
The former military dictator was said to have laundered the money through the US into the Channel Islands in accounts held by Doraville Properties Corporation, a British Virgin Islands company.
This is one of the many looted funds stashed abroad by the late de facto president who rule Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998.
According to Metro News, the money is now being held by the government until the authorities in Jersey, the US and Nigeria come to an agreement on how it should be distributed.
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.
Any money that Jersey authorities keep will be put into the Criminal Confiscation Fund, which is used to pay for a variety of projects.
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 Royal Court dismissed the application in 2016. Then in 2017, Doraville challenged the Royal Court’s 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 UN conference on corruption. He said: ‘The conference of the States Parties to the United Nations convention against corruption is an important international forum concerned with anti-corruption measures and asset returns. ‘The conference was a good opportunity to demonstrate progress with the Doraville case, as well as Jersey’s determination to deal with international financial crime more generally.’
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