The United Kingdom's National Crime Agency (NCA) has seized three London properties linked to former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
According to a report by Premium Times, the order to freeze the assets was handed down by a London court in September 2016.
The properties, two in Regents Park and one in Buckinghamshire, were frozen under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The freezing order reportedly followed a request made by Nigerian authorities also investigating the former minister.
While
the order forbids the defendants from disposing of or dealing in the
properties, it came too late to capture a further two properties worth
£8 million which were sold.
Between 2011 and 2015, Chief Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko allegedly paid
bribes to Alison-Madueke in exchange for billion dollar contracts, to
lift Nigeria's oil, getting awarded to shell companies owned by both of
them.
Through shell companies, both men laundered
billions of dollars accruing from Nigeria's crude into the US and
Europe, using the proceeds to purchase properties worth millions of
dollars for Alison-Madueke.
Using a series of
shell companies and layered financial transactions to conceal the
nature, location, source, and/or ownership of the proceeds of their
illicit transactions, they purchased properties for Alison-Madueke in
London and the United States.
The seized property in Buckinghamshire was bought by Omokore's Seychellois company Miranda Investments for £3,250,000 in January 2011, while the other two in Harley House and Park View were bought for £2,800,000 and £3,750,000 respectively in March 2011.
Aiteo's Chief Executive Officer, Benedict Peters, a jeweler named Christopher Aire, and a lawyer named Donald Amamgbo, are also listed as defendants by the United States Department of Justice.
Alison-Madueke
was arrested in 2015 by the NCA and will stand trial with the other
four defendants for alleged bribery, corruption and money laundering.
She
has been linked to a slew of corruption cases, with courts seizing
assets and funds that have been suspected to be proceeds of her loot.
ALSO READ: The unbelievable figures of Diezani's loot
On
Tuesday, August 22, a Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the interim
forfeiture of assets valued at $16,441,906 linked to her.
On Wednesday, August 9, 2017, Justice Chuka Obiozor of
a Lagos Federal High Court also ordered the interim forfeiture of the
sum of N7,646,700,000 linked to the former minister after the EFCC filed
an ex parte application.
This ruling came only days after a Federal High Court, also in Lagos, ordered the permanent forfeiture of a $37.5m Banana Island mansion owned by the former minister on Monday, August 7.
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