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| Atiku Abubakar |
New FINCEN files published by International Consortium of Journalists, America’s Buzzfeed I and Nigeria’s Premium Times, have detailed how Atiku Abubakar, former Nigerian VP, triggered international suspicions around him and his wives.
It all started with a $1,018,500 wire transfer on March 5, 2012 to Habib Bank Limited New York.
The transfer, according to Premium Times, which investigated the Atiku leg of the report, was flagged in daily monitoring by the bank.
The transfer originated from Guernsey Trust Company Nigeria Limited (GTCN) with the beneficiary being Tanjay Real Estate Brokers, a company which held a Habib Bank Limited Dubai account.
It was the link with Atiku that triggered a suspicious activity report through HBNLY’s transaction monitoring system.
With Mr Atiku as the beneficial owner, GTCN is a trust corporation incorporated in Nigeria in 2003, to hold his 16 per cent stake in Intels Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s oil and gas logistics giant. This entity has been locked in a business battle with the Nigerian Ports Authority in the past years.
In 1999, Atiku became Nigeria’s Vice-president and, thus, created a blind trust to hold his asset in Intels. It was the blind trust created in 1999 that GTCN was incorporated to manage in 2003, with Gabrielle Volpi. Akintola Kekere-Ekun, a banker, and Uyiekpen Osagie, a lawyer, as its directors and trustees.
“An investigation (of the March 2012 wire transfer) identified GTCN as an alleged shell company that has been used to transfer over USD 10 million via wire transfers through U.S. banks on behalf of the former vice-president of Nigeria, Mr Atiku Abubakar,” HBLNY reported.
“HBLNY’s review of public sources revealed that there have been numerous investigations of Mr Abubakar, as senior Politically Exposed Person (PEP), linking him to corruption allegations, possible Foreign Corrupt Practices Act foreign violations and money laundering.”
In 2010, the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations indicted GTCN alongside other companies linked to Atiku and Mr Volpi.
The committee had investigated how “foreign senior political figures, their relatives, and associates may be circumventing or undermining anti-money laundering (AML) and PEP controls to bring funds that may be the product of foreign corruption into the United States.”
Of the $40 million identified in the US Senate investigation regarding Atiku, $25 million was reportedly wire-transferred into more than 30 U.S. bank accounts opened by Jennifer Douglas, Atiku’s fourth wife.
The wire transfers were primarily by GTCN, LetsGo Ltd. Inc., and Sima Holding Ltd. Both LetsGo and Sima are offshore corporations registered in Panama and the British Virgin Islands, respectively, and controlled by Mr Volpi, according to a letter to the Senate committee by the businessman’s lawyer, Raymond Shepherd of the Washington-based Venable firm.
The transactions identified in the US Senate report were made while Atiku held office as Nigeria’s number two.
The March 5, 2012 suspicious transaction reported by HBNYL was for the purchase of a flat in the “World Trade Centre residences” in Dubai for Rukaiyatu Abubakar, a senior wife of Atiku, through Tanjay, the transaction beneficiary.
The following day, March 6, 2012, as the SAR shows, Deutsche Bank New York raised a compliance question in an information request to HBL Dubai regarding another wire transfer between GTCN and Tanjay in the sum of $200,000 dated January 25, 2012. This was also reported to be for a flat for Rukaiyatu Abubakar – and there was another CHF 741,000 transaction to which GTCN and Tanjay were also parties.
The flagged 2012 wire transfers to Dubai triggered a further investigation, which revealed that GTCN had channelled several other transactions since May 2005, while Atiku was still Nigeria’s vice-president, to an account the company held with Habib Allied International Bank London, (HAIB, London) from multiple accounts held in Switzerland.
These transactions, also routed through HBLNY, were for “personal expenses” of Amina Titi Abubakar, Mr Abubakar’s first wife and Nigeria’s former second lady.
“Based on the negative information associated with parties identified, HBLNY has added Atiku Abubakar (the former vice president of Nigeria), Rukaiyatu Atiku Abubakar, Amina Atiku Abubakar, Massimo Del Celo, Uyiekpen Gboyega Giwa-Osagie, Tanjay, and GTCN to its internal automated real-time suspicious transaction monitoring for further surveillance of potential suspicious activity and this SAR is being filed against all parties listed,” the SAR said.
Mr Osagie is facing trial in Nigeria for a certain $2 million, which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, reportedly suspects might have been budgeted for vote-buying during the 2019 election, which Atiku contested and lost.
Years after Atiku was added to HBLNY’s suspicious activity monitoring system, another SAR filed in 2017 and showing 27 transactions totalling $11,140,357 involving Intels and channelled through Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, DBTCA, were reported as suspicious.
“Negative information was found regarding the partial owner and co-founder of Intels Nigeria Limited, Atiku Abubakar, having been the subject of investigations for allegations of fraud, corruption, and money laundering between 2000 and 2008,” DBTCA reported on the transactions originating from Intels. “This negative media was reported in prior SARs, and no new negative media was discovered.”
The generation of a SAR does not in itself constitute proof of any wrongdoing. However, the fact that SARs were generated in respect of transactions connected to Atiku is revealing.
These transactions have given the public rare insight into how the former Vice-President’s financial affairs are conducted.
*FINCEN is acronym for US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
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