Mega-corruption: Lessons from Halliburton and the Ibori prosecution

On 26th March, Justice Abubakar Umar struck out the case against three offi- cials implicated in the mega Halliburton corruption case. When the case broke in the United States in 2009,Segun Adeniyi, President Yar’adua’s spokesperson had told Nigeria an unequivocal message from his principal. “All the people culpable in the Halliburton scandal, no matter how […]

On 26th March, Justice Abubakar Umar struck out the case against three offi- cials implicated in the mega Halliburton corruption case. When the case broke in the United States in 2009,Segun Adeniyi, President Yar’adua’s spokesperson had told Nigeria an unequivocal message from his principal. “All the people culpable in the Halliburton scandal, no matter how highly placed, will not go unpunished.” Although investigations had been on since April 2009, and prosecution has enormous evidence and confessions from American and British courts on who paid what amount of bribe to which officials, the Nigerian case just refused to move. As the judge stated, for the past one year, the police and EFCC have simply refused to prose- cute the case hence his decision to throw it out. One key question was why only three officials were arraigned for trial and the prosecutorial officials refused to prosecute them.

The Halliburton case is the litmus test about whether the Nigerian government is ready to combat corruption and the result is that they are definitely not. The story is simple, between 1994 and 2005; Halliburton used conduit companies to pay $180 million to Nigerian officials to secure $6 billion natural gas contracts. Those who organised the payment, Jeffrey Tesler, Wojciech Chodon and Jack Stanley are in jail. The key recipients included three heads – Sani Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Olusegun Obasanjo. Neither Abubakar nor Obasanjo was even invited for a chat by EFCC. The decision apparently is to pretend a few officials were being investigated and prosecuted, drag it out until everyone forgets and allow them enjoy their $180 million loot.

Following the successful prosecution of the former Governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori in the United Kingdom on money laundering charges, concerned civil society organisations in Nigeria, international organisations and individuals working on curbing the wanton and hydra-headed problem of corruption in Nigeria wrote the Minister for International Development of the United Kingdom.

We congratulated the Crown Prosecution Service and the Metropolitan Police Service’s Proceeds of Corruption Unit (POCU), the British government, and particularly the Department for International Development (DFID) on the successful prosecution of James Ibori. Clearly, it was a feat that would have been impossible under the current Nigerian regime. We all recall that Mr Ibori was convicted on seven separate charges of money-laundering; one charge of conspiracy to commit money-laundering; one charge of conspiracy to defraud; one charge of conspiracy to make false instruments; and one charge of property transfer by deception. Total monies accruing from his acts of corruption are about £160 million according to the prosecutors. The Ibori case has also revealed how corrupt politicians can use shell companies to hold their companies assets, and hide their identity. For example, Ibori’s lawyer, Bradesh Gohil, who has been convicted of money laundering, helped Ibori buy a $20 million Bombardier private jet through a number of shell companies. The astronomical sums stolen by Nigeria’s political class is clearly the stumbling block to our development agenda and the guarantee that our people will continue to wallow in poverty and ill health. At the international level,it is encouraging that this type of prosecution consistent with articles 43-50 of the UN Convention against corruption would most importantly send a signal that breaking domes- tic and international laws by stealing public money for private gain would no longer be business as usual. We told the Secretary of State that:

It is also our position that while in the last five years the UK has made progress owing to the Financial Action Task forces position of the UK’s partial compliance on customer due diligence in financial services with the new money regulations in 2007, the extent to which banks especially are applying these rules is in doubt, there is therefore a need for improvement as the likes of James Ibori are still able to beat the system and carry out acts of Money laundering in the process impoverishing their people.

In view of this, we urged the UK government, to ensure that EU’s Third Money Laundering Directive (2005/60/EC), implemented in the UK as the money Laundering Regulations 2007 is strictly adhered to by concerned institutions in the UK in doing business especially with politically exposed persons in the like of James Ibori.

Of course at the end of the day, the United Kingdom cannot solve our problems of mega corruption. Nigeria must re-learn how to successfully prosecute corrupt officials. Corruption is a huge drain on the Nigerian economy. This type of prosecution consistent with articles 43-50 of the UN Convention against Corruption is enormously important in that it sends a signal that breaking domestic and international laws by stealing public money and using it for public gain and accumulation overseas will not be tolerated. Such international law-enforcement is essential if the fight against corruption in Nigeria. It is however the vigilance of citizens that can make significant by using the information to successful local prosecution.

One week after sending our letter, Andrew Mitch- ell, the British Secretary of State stating that his department which provides UK aid to poor nations funds the police adequately to identify and return stolen funds. He concluded his letter of 27th March stating that: “The successful investigation into James Ibori’s crimes sends a strong but simple message to would be thieves – Britain has a zero-tolerance approach.” The question to our own leadership is do they have a full acceptance approach to mega corruption in our beloved country