Nigerian President-Elect Tinubu’s Family Bought Fraud-Linked London Mansion A firm belonging to the son of
Nigeria’s president-elect bought an $11 million London mansion that his
predecessor’s government was seeking to confiscate as part of a probe into one
of the biggest corruption scandals in the West African nation’s history,
according to previously unreported UK company documents.
There’s no suggestion that
President-elect Bola Tinubu was personally involved in the acquisition of the
UK property in 2017. Current President Muhammadu Buhari visited him there in
August 2021, nearly four years after the purchase took place. Tinubu, who will
take over as head of state this month, has long been questioned about the source
of his family’s wealth, including throughout the recent election campaign, when
he and his representatives were pressed about it by local and international
media.
He and his campaign have said he
made his fortune before going into politics by inheriting real estate,
investing well and working as an accountant at Deloitte LLP and an executive at
the Nigerian subsidiary of Mobil Oil in the 1980s and early 1990s. In an
interview with the BBC in the run-up to the election, Tinubu cited Warren
Buffett as an example he followed to become rich.
The corporate documents seen by
Bloomberg show for the first time that Tinubu’s 37-year-old son Oluwaseyi is
the main shareholder of Aranda Overseas Corp., an offshore company that paid £9
million ($10.8 million) to Deutsche Bank for the property in north
London in late 2017. The private three-floor residence in St. John’s Wood — a
district favored by American bankers — is equipped with an eight-car driveway,
two gardens, electric gates and a gym.
Bola Tinubu’s spokesman and
Oluwaseyi Tinubu did not respond to emails, phone calls and text messages
seeking comment. A British lawyer listed as Aranda’s agent in the UK declined
to comment citing confidentiality rules.
At the time of the purchase,
Nigeria’s government was seeking to arrest the house’s former owner, accusing
him of going on the run while owing the country an oil-trading debt worth more
than $1.5 billion. The state was also attempting to confiscate the upscale real
estate and other assets it suspected had been acquired by the businessman —
Kolawole Aluko — with the profits of crime. Aluko denies all allegations of
wrongdoing and says a court judgment earlier this year acquitting a former business
partner has cleared his name. That ruling is being challenged by Nigeria’s
anti-graft agency.
Tinubu, 71, won an election in
February as the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress and is
scheduled to succeed his political ally Buhari on May 29. He was a key
powerbroker in the merger of opposition parties that brought the current head
of state to office in 2015.
While Buhari was elected on a
pledge to tackle widespread graft, the country’s ranking in Transparency
International’s Corruption Perceptions Index has deteriorated over the past
eight years.
Buhari Visit
A former governor of Lagos state,
Tinubu has long been dogged by allegations of graft and rule-breaking, which he
denies. In 1993, he forfeited $460,000 to resolve a lawsuit in Chicago after US
federal authorities said that bank accounts in his name held the proceeds of
heroin trafficking. Tinubu’s lawyers have said he was never charged over the
matter.
While staying at the 7,000-square
foot London home in August 2021, Tinubu received a visit from Buhari there,
according to the Lagos-based Premium Times.
The online newspaper — using
documents obtained from the Pandora Papers leak of offshore companies data —
revealed that the shareholders and directors of Aranda from its formation 24
years ago until at least 2010 were Adegboyega Oyetola, the former governor of
Osun state, and Elusanmi Eludoyin, head of a Nigerian property group. Oyetola’s
spokesman and Eludoyin did not respond to requests for comment.
Documents filed this year in
response to new anti-money laundering rules in the UK and seen by Bloomberg
show that Tinubu’s son — an entrepreneur active in advertising who played a
prominent role in his father’s presidential campaign — has been in control of
British Virgin Islands-registered Aranda since June 2011. The company
registered as an overseas entity in the UK on Jan. 20.
Aluko Allegations
Early in Buhari’s first term, his
administration initiated legal cases against Diezani Alison-Madueke, who served
as oil minister for five years until 2015, and two businessmen — Aluko and
Olajide Omokore — who won lucrative contracts during her tenure. The US
government said in a 2017 forfeiture lawsuit filed in Texas that the pair
bribed the minister by funding her “lavish” lifestyle and failed to pay the
state energy company for most of the crude they received.
Alison-Madueke, who is based in
London, has denied the allegations. She is challenging multiple forfeiture
orders issued by Nigerian courts and has accused the anti-corruption agency of
blocking her efforts to defend herself in criminal proceedings.
In June 2016, a federal judge in
the capital, Abuja, granted a request by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission to seize more than a dozen properties that Aluko had acquired in
Nigeria and abroad, including the one in St. John’s Wood. That forfeiture order
was still in force when Tinubu’s son bought the house out of receivership 16
months later.
The ruling was made on an interim
basis pending the conclusion of an investigation into Aluko that was still
ongoing as of at least the end of 2018, according to court filings. Aluko can’t
comment on the forfeiture case because it is still “sub-judice,” his lawyer
Tokunbo Jaiye-Agoro said by email.
Deutsche Bank had foreclosed on
the house and appointed receivers to sell it in late 2016, though there is no
indication in court filings that the Nigerian government was aware the lender
had taken over the house from Aluko as it proceeded with the seizure process.
Aluko took out loans using other properties as collateral, according to the US
Justice Department.
The EFCC said the buildings “were
suspected to have been purchased with the proceeds of crime” and Aluko “fled
the country” to avoid answering the fraud allegations against him, according to
court filings.
Omokore was acquitted in February
by a Nigerian court of charges related to the same allegations. The EFCC –
which accuses him of defrauding the state energy firm of $1.6 billion – has
said it will appeal. The judge removed Aluko and Alison-Madueke from the
indictment because they were not in the country. Aluko’s location is unknown.
The acquittal of Omokore “puts to
rest all the false allegations” about his and Aluko’s wealth, according to
Jaiye-Agoro. Despite the appeal, “the current state of affairs” is that Aluko’s
income was “legitimate and not from any corrupt practice,” Jaiye-Agoro said.
Omokore “objects to the
continuous link of his name to any corrupt practices,” his lawyer, Rafiu
Lawal-Rabana, said by text message. The court decision earlier this year
discharged Omokore on all counts and any hitches in the implementation of the
oil contracts were “purely technical not criminal,” he said.
Buhari’s spokesman and
Alison-Madueke’s lawyer declined to comment. Spokespeople for Attorney General
Abubakar Malami, the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd. and the EFCC did not
respond to requests for comment.
Yachts, Penthouses
In October 2017, as the
government that Tinubu played an instrumental role in bringing to power was
chasing Aluko and his assets, his son’s company bought one of the targeted
properties. Aranda still owns the building and there is currently no mortgage
registered to it, according to the UK land records.
The firm didn’t purchase the
house directly from Aluko, but from a UK unit of Deutsche Bank AG that held a
mortgage on the property and had appointed receivers to sell it a year earlier.
Aluko acquired the mansion via a BVI company in 2013 and, according to Premium
Times, paid £11.95 million. Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
Aluko has no knowledge of Aranda
or the individuals behind the company and “was not privy to the sale” as the
bank had foreclosed on the house, Jaiye-Agoro said. The UK’s National Crime
Agency did not respond to questions about whether it had ever received a
request from the Nigerian authorities to freeze the property. The UK Home
Office declined to comment.
The US Justice Department
announced on March 27 that it has recovered more than $53 million by
confiscating assets bought by Aluko for more than $160 million with what it
considers to be the proceeds of corruption — including a 65-meter superyacht and
luxury homes in California and New York.Early in Buhari’s first term, his
administration initiated legal cases against Diezani Alison-Madueke, who served
as oil minister for five years until 2015, and two businessmen — Aluko and
Olajide Omokore — who won lucrative contracts during her tenure. The US
government said in a 2017 forfeiture lawsuit filed in Texas that the pair
bribed the minister by funding her “lavish” lifestyle and failed to pay the
state energy company for most of the crude they received.
Alison-Madueke, who is based in
London, has denied the allegations. She is challenging multiple forfeiture
orders issued by Nigerian courts and has accused the anti-corruption agency of
blocking her efforts to defend herself in criminal proceedings.
In June 2016, a federal judge in
the capital, Abuja, granted a request by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission to seize more than a dozen properties that Aluko had acquired in
Nigeria and abroad, including the one in St. John’s Wood. That forfeiture order
was still in force when Tinubu’s son bought the house out of receivership 16
months later.
The ruling was made on an interim
basis pending the conclusion of an investigation into Aluko that was still
ongoing as of at least the end of 2018, according to court filings. Aluko can’t
comment on the forfeiture case because it is still “sub-judice,” his lawyer
Tokunbo Jaiye-Agoro said by email.
Deutsche Bank had foreclosed on
the house and appointed receivers to sell it in late 2016, though there is no
indication in court filings that the Nigerian government was aware the lender
had taken over the house from Aluko as it proceeded with the seizure process.
Aluko took out loans using other properties as collateral, according to the US
Justice Department.
The EFCC said the buildings “were
suspected to have been purchased with the proceeds of crime” and Aluko “fled
the country” to avoid answering the fraud allegations against him, according to
court filings.
Omokore was acquitted in February
by a Nigerian court of charges related to the same allegations. The EFCC –
which accuses him of defrauding the state energy firm of $1.6 billion – has
said it will appeal. The judge removed Aluko and Alison-Madueke from the
indictment because they were not in the country. Aluko’s location is unknown.
The acquittal of Omokore “puts to
rest all the false allegations” about his and Aluko’s wealth, according to
Jaiye-Agoro. Despite the appeal, “the current state of affairs” is that Aluko’s
income was “legitimate and not from any corrupt practice,” Jaiye-Agoro said.
Omokore “objects to the
continuous link of his name to any corrupt practices,” his lawyer, Rafiu
Lawal-Rabana, said by text message. The court decision earlier this year
discharged Omokore on all counts and any hitches in the implementation of the
oil contracts were “purely technical not criminal,” he said.
Buhari’s spokesman and
Alison-Madueke’s lawyer declined to comment. Spokespeople for Attorney General
Abubakar Malami, the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd. and the EFCC did not
respond to requests for comment.
Yachts, Penthouses
In October 2017, as the
government that Tinubu played an instrumental role in bringing to power was
chasing Aluko and his assets, his son’s company bought one of the targeted
properties. Aranda still owns the building and there is currently no mortgage
registered to it, according to the UK land records.
The firm didn’t purchase the
house directly from Aluko, but from a UK unit of Deutsche Bank AG that held a
mortgage on the property and had appointed receivers to sell it a year earlier.
Aluko acquired the mansion via a BVI company in 2013 and, according to Premium
Times, paid £11.95 million. Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
Aluko has no knowledge of Aranda
or the individuals behind the company and “was not privy to the sale” as the
bank had foreclosed on the house, Jaiye-Agoro said. The UK’s National Crime
Agency did not respond to questions about whether it had ever received a
request from the Nigerian authorities to freeze the property. The UK Home
Office declined to comment.
The US Justice Department
announced on March 27 that it has recovered more than $53 million by
confiscating assets bought by Aluko for more than $160 million with what it
considers to be the proceeds of corruption — including a 65-meter superyacht and
luxury homes in California and New York.culled: Bloomberg
Source:
Nigerian President-Elect Tinubu’s Family Bought Fraud-Linked London Mansion - NigerianEye
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November 04, 2017, 01:05:09 AM