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Tag: James Ibori

  • Ibori: Counsel says judge lacks jurisdiction to terminate case

    At the resumed hearing of former Delta State Governor James Ibori’s confiscation case, Ibori’s defence counsel challenged the judge’s powers in terminating the case midway and ordering a retrial. QC Krolic told the judge “your honour has no jurisdiction to terminate the previous proceedings” in the way that it was done.

    At the preliminary hearing, both the judge and the prosecution appeared to suggest that Ibori’s earlier confiscation hearing, which was abruptly made inconclusive on October 7, had been based on a ‘Life Style Offence’.

    QC Krolic corrected both the judge and the prosecution, stating that “the life style offence only applied to the 2002 Act and that Ibori’s confiscation proceedings were governed by the 1988 Act to which life style did not apply”. Neither the judge nor the crown prosecution was able to respond to Mr. Krolic’s points.

    The case has been adjourned till Tuesday.

    Judge Anthony Pitts had adjourned the confiscation hearing for retrial, having accepted the Crown Prosecution’s submission that “there is no sufficient evidence to proceed with the confiscation hearing”. Judge Anthony Pitts rather than rule on the submissions of the two parties after three weeks of legal arguments from the prosecution and defence counsels in October, decided to send the confiscation hearing to retrial for the prosecution counsel to provide more evidence and witnesses in order to give his ruling on the confiscation hearing.

    The defence argued against this, saying it was akin to shifting the goal posts mid game just to favour a certain side in a football match.

    In another related case, the Jury sitting at Southwark Crown Court today found Elias Preko guilty of the two counts charge of money laundering, which was sent to retrial by Judge Anthony Pitts.

    Although this news found its way into many Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday, none could report that the same Mr. Preko was cleared of three counts charge of money laundering and forgery by a Jury in his first trial in 2012. But the same Judge Pitts sent the case for a retrial just as he did with the Ibori confiscation case. And now that the man, who was found innocent before, was found guilty at the retrial, Judge Pitts has accepted the verdict and did not talk about retrial again. Instead, he was sentenced to four years imprisonment over the same charges, but which were sent to retrial by the judge –after a jury had declared him innocent in the earlier trial in the same court.

    Elias Preko, a former Gold Goldman Sachs banker, had been accused of helping Ibori create offshore accounts and trust funds.

  • Ibori’s UK lawyer questioned over alleged police bribery

    Ibori’s UK lawyer questioned over alleged police bribery

    •Alleged to have hired private eyes to buy information from London Police

    One of the counsels to Chief James Ibori, the jailed former governor of Delta State, has been arrested in London for allegedly attempting to pervert the course of justice in the money-laundering case that got the politician sent to prison.

    Ian Timlin, a former litigation partner at City Law Firm Speechly Bircham, was held by Met anti-corruption detectives investigating the alleged bribery of police officers. The senior lawyer was arrested at his home in Kent on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt a police officer, perverting the course of justice and money-laundering offences concerning Ibori.

    The former governor was jailed last year for embezzlement after admitting stealing almost £50m, although the true amount may have been many times greater.

    The Independent of London reported that during a long-running Scotland Yard investigation into his business affairs, Mr Ibori hired the law firm, Speechly Bircham, which specialises in tax advice for non-domiciled people living in the UK. Mr Timlin, who until 2010 was a partner at Speechly Bircham, then hired RISC Management, a controversial private detective agency embroiled in the scandal that erupted after the murder of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

    Leaked documents, according to the newspaper, suggest RISC, run by former Met Police officers, gained inside information into the ongoing investigation of Ibori and that the agency paid serving detectives £20,000 for intelligence that helped the convict’s defence lawyers. One £5,000 payment was allegedly made to a source for information relating to “forthcoming interviewing strategy to be deployed by police”.

    Mr Timlin was arrested in April and it is understood police have retrieved internal documents from the law firm. Keith Hunter, the boss of RISC Management, has also been arrested as part of the investigation, which was triggered in May 2012 when newspapers revealed the Met had done nothing since a whistleblower passed police leaked documents revealing the alleged payments to officers many months before.

    Like all current investigations into damaging allegations of police corruption, the long-running inquiry has inched its way tortuously forward, which prevents the media from reporting the full details. Both Mr Hunter and Mr Timlin deny the allegations and are on bail.

    Mr Timlin qualified as a solicitor in 1991 and was a partner for 15 years in a number of London law firms before he left Speechly Bircham in 2010. He is now legal director of the Long Port Group, a property development company in the tax haven of Guernsey, and has been involved in the construction of a sports resort in Brazil.

    RISC, which is also used by law firm Mischon de Reya, has links to Russian oligarchs in London. It was first established as ISC Global in October 2000 by a lawyer called Stephen Curtis. He died in a helicopter accident in 2004, a crash that his family claimed was highly suspicious.

    In 2006, it emerged the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko visited RISC’s central London offices shortly before he died of polonium poisoning, and traces of the radioactive substance were found at the premises.

    A spokesperson for Speechly Bircham said: “Given an arrest was made some months ago and there has since been no charge, it would be inappropriate for us to comment. Suffice to say that we have assisted the police with their enquiries.”

    Mr Hunter said: “RISC management does not need to pay serving police officers for confidential information as we pride ourselves on our ability to provide positive solutions and accurate information legitimately.” Mr Timlin and the Long Port Group did not respond to requests for comment.

    At Ibori’s sentencing, prosecutor Sasha Wass said: “From the moment he was elected he set about enriching himself at the expense of some of the poorest people in the world.” She told the court he was “effectively a thief in government house.”

  • Ibori’s UK lawyer questioned over alleged police bribery

    Ibori’s UK lawyer questioned over alleged police bribery

    •Alleged to have hired private eyes to buy information from London Police

    One of the counsels to Chief James Ibori, the jailed former governor of Delta State, has been arrested in London for allegedly attempting to pervert the course of justice in the money-laundering case that got the politician sent to prison.

    Ian Timlin, a former litigation partner at City Law Firm Speechly Bircham, was held by Met anti-corruption detectives investigating the alleged bribery of police officers. The senior lawyer was arrested at his home in Kent on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt a police officer, perverting the course of justice and money-laundering offences concerning Ibori.

    The former governor was jailed last year for embezzlement after admitting stealing almost £50m, although the true amount may have been many times greater.

    The Independent of London reported that during a long-running Scotland Yard investigation into his business affairs, Mr Ibori hired the law firm, Speechly Bircham, which specialises in tax advice for non-domiciled people living in the UK. Mr Timlin, who until 2010 was a partner at Speechly Bircham, then hired RISC Management, a controversial private detective agency embroiled in the scandal that erupted after the murder of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

    Leaked documents, according to the newspaper, suggest RISC, run by former Met Police officers, gained inside information into the ongoing investigation of Ibori and that the agency paid serving detectives £20,000 for intelligence that helped the convict’s defence lawyers. One £5,000 payment was allegedly made to a source for information relating to “forthcoming interviewing strategy to be deployed by police”.

    Mr Timlin was arrested in April and it is understood police have retrieved internal documents from the law firm. Keith Hunter, the boss of RISC Management, has also been arrested as part of the investigation, which was triggered in May 2012 when newspapers revealed the Met had done nothing since a whistleblower passed police leaked documents revealing the alleged payments to officers many months before.

    Like all current investigations into damaging allegations of police corruption, the long-running inquiry has inched its way tortuously forward, which prevents the media from reporting the full details. Both Mr Hunter and Mr Timlin deny the allegations and are on bail.

    Mr Timlin qualified as a solicitor in 1991 and was a partner for 15 years in a number of London law firms before he left Speechly Bircham in 2010. He is now legal director of the Long Port Group, a property development company in the tax haven of Guernsey, and has been involved in the construction of a sports resort in Brazil.

    RISC, which is also used by law firm Mischon de Reya, has links to Russian oligarchs in London. It was first established as ISC Global in October 2000 by a lawyer called Stephen Curtis. He died in a helicopter accident in 2004, a crash that his family claimed was highly suspicious.

    In 2006, it emerged the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko visited RISC’s central London offices shortly before he died of polonium poisoning, and traces of the radioactive substance were found at the premises.

    A spokesperson for Speechly Bircham said: “Given an arrest was made some months ago and there has since been no charge, it would be inappropriate for us to comment. Suffice to say that we have assisted the police with their enquiries.”

    Mr Hunter said: “RISC management does not need to pay serving police officers for confidential information as we pride ourselves on our ability to provide positive solutions and accurate information legitimately.” Mr Timlin and the Long Port Group did not respond to requests for comment.

    At Ibori’s sentencing, prosecutor Sasha Wass said: “From the moment he was elected he set about enriching himself at the expense of some of the poorest people in the world.” She told the court he was “effectively a thief in government house.”

  • Fighter of corruption in Nigeria considers next steps

    Fighter of corruption in Nigeria considers next steps

    The cash was handed over in large sacks containing $15 million in $100 bills, bags so heavy that the stoop-shouldered civil servant needed help carrying them.

    James Ibori, the governor of an oil-rich state in southern Nigeria, was so desperate to escape prosecution on corruption charges that he tried to pay off the civil servant, Nuhu Ribadu, Nigeria’s anticorruption commissioner. Mr. Ribadu accepted the money, but it was all a ruse.

    A bespectacled former police officer with the no-nonsense style of a G-man, Mr. Ribadu did not keep the money, a remarkable act in a nation where corruption is endemic. Instead he deposited it in a government bank vault, evidence of Mr. Ibori’s many misdeeds, and in 2007 Mr. Ibori was arrested. Ultimately the charges did not stick — the governor was acquitted by a Nigerian court. He was eventually convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud in Britain, where he had stashed a hefty chunk of the hundreds of millions of dollars of oil money he was believed to have embezzled.

    The outcome of the case is in many ways an emblem of Mr. Ribadu’s career as a corruption fighter in Nigeria, a country Colin L. Powell once called a nation of “marvelous scammers”: a string of partial victories against a seemingly unbeatable foe.

    These days, Mr. Ribadu sits at home in a government-issue villa in this prefab 1980s-era capital, ruminating on his next move.

    At 53, he has been celebrated inside Nigeria and beyond for his five-year tenure as chief of the anticorruption unit, beginning in 2003.

    In that time he built the unit, called the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, into Nigeria’s largest anticorruption agency, with over 1,200 employees in six offices across Nigeria. He successfully prosecuted in 2005 Tafa Balogun, an inspector general of police who had resigned. Mr. Balogun pleaded guilty to failing to declare his assets. Mr. Ribadu arrested Mr. Ibori, the former governor of Delta State, in December 2007. He prosecuted 10 prominent national public figures, including nine governors.

    His reputation gained luster only after he was forced from office in 2008 and into exile after what he said were assassination attempts, after he tried to prosecute corrupt politicians. He was appointed a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington and was also a senior fellow at St. Athony’s College, Oxford.

    He returned to Nigeria to run for president in 2011, but came nowhere near victory, and since then has struggled to find a place in Nigerian public life. He continues to investigate graft, but with a less prominent platform. His report pointing out large-scale corruption and waste in the country’s oil industry, which was published last year, was ignored by the government that commissioned it.

    “One of my very big disappointments,” Mr. Ribadu said intently in an interview here.

    Still, he remains a unique figure, prominent in the political opposition and often named as a possible future candidate for office.

    “For the generality of the people, he is a dogged anticorruption crusader,” said Femi Falana, a prominent Nigerian human rights lawyer. “For the corrupt elements that constitute the political class, they fear him.”

    Since Mr. Ribadu’s abrupt ouster as head of the anticorruption agency, “there is a feeling that the war on corruption is a lost battle,” Mr. Falana said.

    The anticorruption fight appears to be on sabbatical in the garden of Mr. Ribadu’s home here.

    “Most people you will have encountered will want to ‘settle’ you,” the soft-spoken Mr. Ribadu said in an interview in the garden, using a Nigerian term for a bribe. “Up to my last day at work, people were trying to bribe me. That is the shocking thing.” Mr. Ribadu began his career as a street police officer in some of Lagos’s rougher neighborhoods, eventually rising to become the chief prosecutor for the Nigerian police. He speaks with a piercing intensity, sometimes clenching a fist to punctuate a point. He grew up deep in Nigeria’s northern hinterland in the town of Yola. It was a devout Muslim household and a “refuge against pain and injustice” that succored persecuted lepers, he wrote in his autobiography.

    •This story was first published in The New York Times on November 22

  • Why Tafa Balogun was arrested, jailed for fraud -Ribadu

    Why Tafa Balogun was arrested, jailed for fraud -Ribadu

    The pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has explained why he (as an Assistant Commissioner of Police) arrested a former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun.

    He said since justice is blind, Balogun crossed the line and had to face trial for corruption.

    He also said there are smarter crooks than ex-governor James Ibori in the country.

    The EFCC under Ribadu had arrested and put the former IGP on trial for about N5.7billion official corruption.

    Ribadu, who bared his mind on one of the most celebrated trials in the country in an interview with EFCC Magazine, “Zero Tolerance,” said the fear of God made him to arrest the then IGP instead of his status.

    He said: “Well, the point is that whoever crosses the line will be dealt with. Whether a constable or an IGP, it’s the same thing. The solution is not to cross the line.

    “When you execute your mandate honestly, you become blind to the position of individuals. Justice is blind.

    “So, Tafa Balogun was my boss as the Inspector-General of Police, but he crossed the line. He did things that were wrong and was brought to our attention, and the law took its course.

    “To be honest, I thank God for having only one fear; that is the fear of God. It is not arrogance or anything, no it’s just that I feel what is right is right and in doing what is right, I don’t fear any mortal.

    “I have never looked for anything in terms of benefit in any position I have occupied; even in the police, an IGP could not give me anything.

    “A President could not give me anything. Obasanjo never gave me an office pin up till this very moment! Never!

    “A lot of people feel EFCC broke several laws or Obasanjo gave me everything. What did he give me? The entire budget of EFCC from beginning up to the time I left was not up to N11billion for five years! We never got anything extra, never!

    “The people we brought to justice were the closest people to him (Obasanjo), they were PDP men; but others will turn it upside down and lie. It’s really sad, and a lot of them got away with it.”

    On the corruption charges against ex-Governor James Ibori,

    “There are worse people than James Ibori in Nigeria. I think probably James was not the smartest one among them. There are some crooks worse than James; and I still see them.

    “Some of them are even being celebrated right now in our country. Some of them are trying to re-write history. James didn’t handle his own criminal affairs smartly, and he ended up paying dearly for it.

    “There are smarter crooks than James, who did more damage to the EFCC; but God will judge them. James is serving a jail term in the United Kingdom.

    “So it was not only James and if we narrow it down to James alone then we are actually underestimating the way corruption fought back.”

    Responding to a question, Ribadu said the investigation of Ibori for fraud was not personal.

     

  • Money laundering: Court to hear Babalakin’s applications June 5

    Money laundering: Court to hear Babalakin’s applications June 5

    Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo of a Lagos High Court, Ikeja, has fixed June 5 for hearing of the applications filed by the Chairman of the Bi-Courtney Limited, Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN) and co-defendant, Alex Okoh asking the court to quash the N4.7 billion money laundering charge preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

    The court also dismissed a pending application filed by Bi-Courtney Services Limited, seeking to quash the charge instituted against it by the EFCC.

    Babalakin, his companies – Stabilini Visioni Limited, Bi-Courtney Limited, Renix Nigeria Limited and Alex Okoh are facing a 27-court bordering on criminal conspiracy and money laundering to the tune of N4.7 billion.

    The EFCC had alleged that they laundered the money on behalf of the former Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori.

    Ruling on Bi-Courtney’s application on Tuesday, Justice Onigbanjo dismissed the submission of the defendant that the continuation of the trial was an abuse of court process because of an application pending at the appeal court on the matter.

    The trial judge held that continuing with the trial does not in anyway constitute an abuse of court process as argued by the applicant.

    He said mere filing of an application of appeal at the Court of Appeal is not enough ground to strike out or discontinue a charge before a lower court.

    The judge also held that it would amount to irreparable loss if he allowed the application to quash the charges and the appeal fails.

    “I think the balance of convenience tilts towards refusing this application. The application failed and is hereby refused,” he said.

     

  • Ibori fails to get 13-year jail term reduced

    Ibori fails to get 13-year jail term reduced

    Jailed former Delta State governor, James Ibori, has lost an appeal against his 13-year prison sentence for embezzling 50 million pounds.

    Reuters reports that Judge Antony Edwards-Stuart on Thursday in London rejected Ibori’s appeal for a reduction of his sentence and said that money laundering should attract close to the maximum 14-year sentence.

    Ibori pleaded guilty to 10 charges of fraud and money-laundering in February 2012.

  • Court okays Babalakin’s co-defendant for foreign treatment

    Mr. Alex Okoh, the co-defendant in the suit brought against the chairman of Bi-Courtney Limited, Chief Olawale Babalakin, was on Tuesday granted leave by a Lagos High Court, Ikeja to travel to the United Kingdom for medical check-up for undisclosed ailment.

    Okoh is facing trial alongside Babalakin, for allegedly transferring N4.7 billion on behalf of former Delta State Governor,James Ibori, to some banks.

    They were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission alongside their companies – Stabilini Visioni Limited,Bi-Courtney Limited and Renix Nigeria Limited.

    At the resumed hearing of the matter on Tuesday, Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo in his ruling on an application filed by Okoh’s counsel, Mr. Olaniran Obele, ordered the EFCC to release his travelling documents to enable him go for the medical trip.

    Onigbanjo also directed the EFCC to allow Okoh to keep the medical appointment with the United Kingdom hospital between March 6 and 19.

    Okoh was however ordered by the judge to return the documents to the custody of the EFCC within 48 hours of his arrival in Nigeria.

    Obele had informed the court that his client, Okoh once travelled to the UK from December 30, 2012 and January 7 for the same purpose prior to his arraignment.

    He assured the court that the defence would file a further affidavit and attach all the necessary evidence including the medical report, and serve same on the prosecution.

    EFCC counsel, Mrs. Taiwo Ogunleye, did not object to the application, but advised the court to be wary of allowing Okoh travel to the UK where she feared he may be arrested.

    “The case that led to the arraignment of the second defendant came from the UK.

    “He may be arrested in the United Kingdom and that may take away my Lord’s jurisdiction of the matter,” she said.

    Justice Onigbanjo has however adjourned the matter to March 27 for hearing of all pending applications.

     

  • Court rejects preferential treatment for Babalakin

    Court rejects preferential treatment for Babalakin

    An Ikeja High Court, Lagos, on Monday rejected the request by the embattled Bi- Courtney Chairman, Dr. Wale Babalakin to be allowed to sit in the bar or adjacent the dock as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on January 17 arraigned Babalakin and four others, before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo, for allegedly conspiring and laundering N4.7 billion for the former governor of Delta State, James Ibori.

    Standing trial on a 27 count charge with Babalakin are one Alex Okoh; construction giants, Stabilini Visioni Limited, Bi-Courtney Limited, and Renix Nigeria Limited.

    Counsel to EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had told the court that the defendants between May and December 2006 conspired to commit felony to wit: corruptly confering benefit on account of public action contrary to Section 98A (1) (a) of the Criminal Code Law, Cap. C17, Laws of Lagos State 2003.

    At the resumed hearing on Monday, Babalakin, who was granted bail on self recognition, prayed the court to allow him sit outside the dock since he is an inner member of the bar.

    Lead counsel to the defendants, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who sought the relief prior to the commencement of the case, cited Section 210 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, 2011.

    He argued that Babalakin, as a SAN, “a lawyer of repute”, and under the law, as an accused may be allowed to “sit adjacent to the dock.”

    His submission was however countered by Jacobs, who insisted that the court must be careful, especially because the action will amount to an injustice against the second defendant, Okoh.

    Jacobs said, “We have to be careful, justice must be seen to have been done, not on the grounds of status of the defendant. If that application is granted, what about the other defendant, who is a banker.

    “The inner bar or the outer bar cannot be adjacent to the dock. That section only applies to when there is no dock. In construing the law, what is most important is justice.”

    In his ruling on the preferential treatment to Babalakin, Onigbanjo declined the request and insisted that he could only allow the defendant to be seated inside the dock.

    “Section 210 of the ACJ only applies to a witness on summons. It does not apply to this situation. The defendants have taken their plea. They are not here on summons,” said Onigbanjo.

    Monday’s proceedings were scheduled for hearing on three applications filed by the defendants, each of them represented by a team of defence lawyers.