draining development.pdf - Khazar University

418 Draining Development?Bagudu was allowed to keep US$40 million in return for unconditionalsurrender of the balance. 5 Sums of the order of US$400 million wereheld by banks in The Bahamas and Luxembourg, and US$200 millionwas held in Liechtenstein. 6 In November 2010, the court in Genevaordered confiscation of the US$400 million held in the banks in TheBahamas and Luxembourg in accounts controlled by Mohammed’syounger brother, Abba, and imposed a two-year suspended jail sentence,but, in March 2011, the sentence was quashed and a retrialordered on the grounds that Abba had been unable to attend courtbecause his visa had not come through in time. 7 It is anticipated thatthese funds, as well as those held in Liechtenstein, will be repatriated toNigeria in due course.Acts generating corrupt fundsOn July 23, 1998, following Abacha’s death in June, the interim governmentof Abdulsalami Abubakar set up a special investigation panel underthe direction of Peter Gana, a deputy police commissioner and a memberof the National Security Council. The panel was instructed to ascertainwhether Abacha and his entourage had embezzled public funds and, if so,to seek to recover them. In November 1998, the panel published a report,according to which Abacha and his accomplices (namely, among others,Ismailia Gwarzo, the national security adviser; Anthony Ani, the formerminister of finance; Bagudu; and Mohammed Abacha) had arrangedpayments to themselves between January 1994 and June 1998 of sums inexcess of US$1.5 billion and £415 million (equivalent in all to US$2.3 billion)from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). 8 These sums were madeup of cash, traveler’s checks, and interbank transfers. The report statesthat the panel was able to recover a total of US$625 million and £75 million.This was the “voluntary” return of monies by the Abacha family.The panel report stated that records from the CBN revealed that atotal of US$2.25 billion had been withdrawn from the CBN on theapproval of General Abacha and Ismailia Gwarzo and largely divertedinto foreign bank accounts and the acquisition of real estate and otherassets. The modus operandi was for Gwarzo to use security needs as a fakereason for applying to the CBN for funds. These monies are thus generallyreferred to as the security vote monies.