It was the link with Atiku that triggered suspicious activity alert through HBNLY’s transaction system
Ahead of Nigeria’s 2019 general elections, perennial
presidential hopeful, Atiku Abubakar, mounted an intense campaign to
untangle his candidacy from a public perception that he is corrupt. This is
what his opponents have always latched on to. But in 2019, he decided
to confront the question of corruption head-on.
“I have always said that if they have any evidence of corruption against Atiku,
please come forward,” Atiku told a packed audience in Ado Ekiti,
southwestern Nigeria. “But nobody has been able to come forward.”
As Atiku made media and public appearances daring detractors to provide
evidence against him, American authorities were also busy poring through
records to determine if the former vice president had engaged in any recent
financial transaction that could be considered questionable or suspicious.
As a Politically Exposed Person (PEP), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
(FinCEN), an agency of the U.S. Department of Treasury, had placed Atiku and
his family members under close watch.
New findings have now shown that FinCEN flagged some transactions linked to the
senior politician as suspicious as it surveilled money movements within the
international financial system.
These findings also offer fresh insight into how huge funds
linked to Atiku may have been moved across international jurisdictions using
shell companies.
FinCEN files, a new investigation by the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists, BuzzFeed and 108 media partners across the world,
including PREMIUM TIMES, are a large volume of confidential financial reports
relating to the transaction activities of world leaders, terrorists, drug
dealers and money launderers.
The investigation involved 16-month collaborative work involving more than 400
journalists, including those from PREMIUM TIMES, in 88 countries.
The files included a large number of suspicious-activity reports, SARs, filed
by banks and other financial institutions to the US Government as required by
the Bank Secrecy Act., with the total amount in suspicious transactions
reported being $2 trillion ($2,099584,477,415.49).
The SARS flagged subjects, including organisations and
individuals, in more than 170 countries, and were obtained and shared by
BuzzFeed.
In one such report, a $1,018,500 wire transfer on March 5, 2012, was flagged in
daily monitoring by Habib Bank Limited New York, HBLNY.
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 alert 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.
Paul Ibe, a spokesperson for Atiku, who was contacted by telephone and email by
reporters from ICIJ and PREMIUM TIMES, declined to comment for this report.
