The United States announced on Monday that it had recovered 53.1 million dollars (about 49 million euros in exchange) after liquidating the assets of a Nigerian corruption network that laundered funds from the African nation’s oil industry on US territory.
The Justice Department reported in a statement the final resolution of two civil cases seeking the forfeiture of various luxury goods from corruption in Nigeria, which had been laundered in the US. The US government recovered $53.1 million in cash, constituting the net liquidation value of the defendants’ assets.
According to court documents, between 2011 and 2015 Nigerian businessmen Kolawole Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore conspired to pay bribes to then Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke, who oversaw the country’s state oil company. In return, the minister used her influence to award lucrative oil contracts to the Aluko and Omokore firms.
The proceeds from those illegal contracts, amounting to more than $100 million, were laundered in the US and used to buy assets through shell companies, including luxury properties in California and New York and a 65-meter yacht. length, the Galactica Star.
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