A small European country of Liechtenstein has agreed to return over N37bn in equivalent (€167m / $227m) stolen by the late military rule General Sani Abacha, Financial Times reports.
This decision ends Nigeria's longest running battle to recover money that the late military dictator laundered through European banks.
The saga started in 2000, when Nigeria first requested assistance of the tiny (population is about 37,000 people), but incredibly rich county (GDP per capita is 2nd in the world) in recovering the assets transferred out of the country by Gen. Abacha.
But the recovery process has not been easy. Companies linked to Abacha's family put lots of legal obstacles. Liechtenstein's constitutional court dismissed a final appeal over the return of the funds in March 2013, which infuriated the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who accused Liechtenstein of "aiding and abetting corruption".
However, an official statement by Liechtenstein's government dated June 17, 2014, Tuesday, read:
Criminal investigations and subsequent forfeiture proceedings established that the Lichtenstein funds originated from bribes paid by Germany's Ferrostaal AG to companies whose ultimate beneficiary was Abacha. They related to a grossly inflated contract for the construction of an aluminium smelter.
So far, Nigeria has recovered $1.3bn, the largest tranche of which - $500m - came from Switzerland in 2005. A further $1.1bn - in France, the UK, Luxembourg and the Channel Island of Jersey - is still tied up in legal proceedings.
In the beginning of March 2014 the United States ordered a freeze of $458m in assets stolen by the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha and his accomplices.
In a surprising development, the government dropped embezzlement charges against Mohamed Abacha, the late dictator's eldest son, who was accused of receiving N100bn ($600m) of the late dictator's money.
This decision ends Nigeria's longest running battle to recover money that the late military dictator laundered through European banks.
The saga started in 2000, when Nigeria first requested assistance of the tiny (population is about 37,000 people), but incredibly rich county (GDP per capita is 2nd in the world) in recovering the assets transferred out of the country by Gen. Abacha.
But the recovery process has not been easy. Companies linked to Abacha's family put lots of legal obstacles. Liechtenstein's constitutional court dismissed a final appeal over the return of the funds in March 2013, which infuriated the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who accused Liechtenstein of "aiding and abetting corruption".
However, an official statement by Liechtenstein's government dated June 17, 2014, Tuesday, read:
"In May 2014, the complaint pending in Strasbourg was withdrawn by the four Abacha companies, clearing the path for repatriation of the assets once and for all."
Criminal investigations and subsequent forfeiture proceedings established that the Lichtenstein funds originated from bribes paid by Germany's Ferrostaal AG to companies whose ultimate beneficiary was Abacha. They related to a grossly inflated contract for the construction of an aluminium smelter.
So far, Nigeria has recovered $1.3bn, the largest tranche of which - $500m - came from Switzerland in 2005. A further $1.1bn - in France, the UK, Luxembourg and the Channel Island of Jersey - is still tied up in legal proceedings.
In the beginning of March 2014 the United States ordered a freeze of $458m in assets stolen by the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha and his accomplices.
In a surprising development, the government dropped embezzlement charges against Mohamed Abacha, the late dictator's eldest son, who was accused of receiving N100bn ($600m) of the late dictator's money.
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