Nigerian group requests $500 million from Trump administration
The rancorous reign of the 45th US President faces a fresh controversy.
A
Nigerian economic and social rights group has written to the White
House demanding the return of $500 million of stolen funds, which it
claims are being held by the US.
"(We
urge) the administration to attach and release to Nigeria some $500
million worth of US-based proceeds of corruption traced to former
Nigerian dictator General Sani Abacha," the Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project (SERAP) wrote in an open letter.
The
letter cites US obligations as a signatory to the UN Convention Against
Corruption, and demands that the government "promptly initiate civil
asset forfeiture proceedings" to ensure that the funds are swiftly
returned to Nigeria.
General Sani Abacha was a notorious
dictator who led Nigeria for five years after taking power in a 1993
coup. He is alleged to have stolen over $4 billion during his reign, before his death in 1998.
SERAP's
claim is the latest in a series of attempts to recover lost wealth from
Abacha and his family, which has been frozen in accounts and assets
around the world.
Switzerland has recovered and returned around $700 million to Nigeria to date, with further sums pending. The US Department of Justice had already seized $480 million in 2014, prior to SERAP's new claim, although this has yet to be returned
The Nigerian government's focus is on
reclaiming the funds it is due from these latter cases rather than the
SERAP claim, says Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, Executive Secretary of the
Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption.
Extracting the money from the US in particular has been a frustrating process for Nigeria.
"President
Obama met with our President Buhari and made a commitment to return
this sum to the government of Nigeria," says Owasanoye. "This has been
subject to legal challenge, and the bureaucratic system in the US is
hindering the return so far."
"Developed countries are very happy to recover money but very slow to return it," he adds.
The legal challenge comes from Godson Nnaka, a former attorney for the Nigerian government.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) says that the appeal must be resolved before the funds can be returned to Nigeria.
he Nigerian government will face further obstacles before recovering the money.
Some
of the forfeited $480 million is located in banks outside the US, which
will require an even more laborious process to recover.
"The
US has to get court orders for those countries to physically move cash
back to the US to go in the pot of seized assets," says Alexander W.
Sierck, a Washington-based lawyer who has represented SERAP pro-bono for
several years in their efforts to recover Abacha funds.
"It is a lawyer's feast that that generates a lot of work -- but it is a slow process."
A
further complication is the DoJ's determination to avoid allowing
repatriated funds to be lost to corruption a second time, often seeking
safeguards.
In the landmark case of
Equatorial Guinea, a haul of assets worth $30 million seized from the
ruling Obiang family including property and sports cars was repatriated
in the form of charitable trusts, partly overseen by the US. A similar
deal was reached over proceeds of corruption from Kazakhstan.
eodorin
Nguema Obiang, Vice-President of Equatorial Guinea, agreed to a deal
that allowed proceeds of corruption from the country to be repatriated
through a trust partly overseen by the US.
The US Congress has discussed a bill that
would see the Nigerian funds placed in a charity to support the victims
of Boko Haram, but Nigeria is unlikely to accept such an arrangement.
"The
US should not impose conditions," says Owasanoye. "They can monitor to
the use of the funds -- we are transparent -- but we are a sovereign
state and the money should be returned to us.
The
need is particularly acute as Nigeria struggles through a period of
recession, he adds, claiming the money will be used for a range of
social welfare projects.
The World Bank estimated in 2007 that developing countries lose up to $40 billion a year through corruption, and little is successfully reclaimed.
"What
is being recovered is a fraction of a fraction," says Emile van der
Does de Willebois, the Bank's global lead for financial market integrity
and asset recovery. "Legal procedures take time and an enormous amount
of resources."
"Of any number of
corruption cases you can only focus on one or two...(and) it is up to
prosecutorial authorities to make a judgement on what is the most
important case."
The process is
further complicated by problems with mutual legal assistance and
co-ordination, says de Willebois, as "victim" states often lack
expertise in how to deal with financial centers such as Switzerland and
the US.
But there has been
progress, he adds, such as through a legal maneuver that allowed
Switzerland to reclaim Abacha assets by classifying his family as a
criminal organization, thus lowering the burden of proof required for
seizure.
New initiatives such as
the US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, and European Union-led
efforts to establish transparency in offshore holdings, also aid
recovery efforts.
But asset
recovery experts also say that the attitude of the new US administration
will be critical for further progress on the issue, and the Nigerians
await their answer from the White House with no little anxiety.
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