May 22, (THEWILL) – A Jersey Royal Court, United Kingdom, has seized about £2 million, allegedly owned by a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lt. Gen (rtd) Jeremiah Useni.
Gen. Useni was the Minister in charge of the Federal Capital Territory during the military regime of late maximum ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha.
The said sum, described by a Jersey Island publication, Bailiwick Express, as “dirty money transferred into local bank accounts by a Nigerian General and politician, said to be corrupt dictator Sani Abacha’s right-hand man”, was allegedly transferred by Useni into four Standard Chartered Bank accounts on the Island.
Useni, the second most senior officer under the rule of General Abacha between 1993 and 1998, was said to have first opened an account in Jersey in 1986 in the name of ‘Mr Tim Shani’, who he later admitted did not exist and presented himself as the true account holder.
“Over the next 15 years, money totalling £1.9m was transferred into four accounts held by ‘Mr Shani’ with Standard Chartered Bank.
“In 2001, the bank wrote to Gen Useni – believing him to be ‘Mr Shani’ – informing him that changes to anti-money laundering legislation in Jersey had resulted in stricter regulations, including the need to have a certified copy of his passport.
“In response, six months later, ‘Mr Shani’ requested that the entire balance in his existing accounts be transferred to a Nigerian bank, in which it transpires that Gen. Useni was a shareholder.
“This request was rejected, and in February 2003, the bank was refused permission to operate the accounts by the police’s Joint Financial Crimes Unit. “There followed several attempts by Gen Useni’s lawyer to unfreeze the accounts and, in 2007, Gen Useni finally identified himself as the true owner of the Shani accounts.
“Giving his occupation as ‘Lieutenant-General’, he informed Standard Chartered that the main source of his wealth was derived from the profits of his multiple businesses, which included transportation, hotel hospitality, petrol stations, personal savings and property investment.
“He said the reason for opening a Jersey-based account was for “security” as it was “necessary to hold a proportion of wealth outside of Nigeria.
“However, the bank asked Gen Useni to explain the source of the money and why he had transferred it to the accounts, as well as ‘supporting documentation to back up the provenance of the funds’ and a full explanation as to why the account was originally opened up under a different name”, the publication stated.
Although in correspondence the following year, Gen Useni said he dealt in “property investment, where I sell some and put some in rent” and owned a shopping centre, two petrol stations and a domestic gas station, a farm and a rice mill, he provided no information about his income in the 1980s and 1990s.
He added that he had not set up the original account in a false name, rather he had used a ‘coded password name’ as advised by the person who had set it up on his behalf.
According to the publication, Useni did not explain why he had used ‘Tim Shani’, with Jersey’s Attorney General concluding that he did so in order to further distance himself from the ownership of assets that had a likely criminal origin.
“In a judgement handed down this morning setting out its decision to order the transfer of the £2m into the island’s Criminal Offences Confiscation Fund’, the Royal Court said: ‘The Attorney General believes that the Shani accounts were created to hold, hide and conceal bribes or other proceeds of corruption received by Useni during the period he held office.
“The payments into the Shani accounts were more likely than not for the purposes or on account of exercising political influence over the award of lucrative contracts to foreign and Nigerian companies for the supply of industrial or commercial services in Nigeria.
“If this conduct had occurred in Jersey, it would have constituted the customary law offence of misconduct in a public office.”
The report added that through a Jersey-based lawyer, Gen. Useni fought, but failed to prevent the seizure.
“The Court also ordered that £45,000 be taken out of the amount seized to pay Standard Chartered Bank’s legal costs.
“The Criminal Offences Confiscation Fund can be drawn on to support measures to prevent crime or paid out to entities with whom Jersey has an asset-sharing arrangement”, the publication concluded.
In 2020, Jersey returned more than £230m of money to Nigeria, which had been laundered through the United States and the island by Gen Abacha.
