{"id":60872,"date":"2020-02-05T10:49:06","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T02:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=60872"},"modified":"2020-02-05T11:05:05","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T03:05:05","slug":"us-jerseys-230m-seizure-of-late-dictator-to-be-returned-to-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=60872","title":{"rendered":"US: Jersey&#8217;s $300m seizure of late dictator to be returned to Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/africa\/Jersey-s-230m-seizure-to-be-returned-to-Nigeria-856651?gallery=1\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanaweb.com\/imagelib\/pics\/402\/40243573.295.jpg\" alt=\"Sani Abacha, de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong><em>Sani Abacha, de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TRENTON (Jersey, US), Feb 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The US will returned more than $300m seized from Nigeria&#8217;s former dictator to the country from the state of Jersey.<br><br>The money was laundered through the US under the presidency of Sani Abacha in the 1990s, before being transferred to the Channel Island, according to Jersey&#8217;s Civil Asset Recovery Fund.<br><br>The sum was recovered from a Jersey bank account belonging to shell company Doraville in June 2019.<br><br>The governments of Nigeria, the US and Jersey signed the agreement this week.<br><br>As part of the repatriation Jersey will retain $5m and the US is eligible for the same, the States said.<br><br>Jersey will surrender the $300m to the US government on or before March 6, and the US will then have 45 days to return it to Nigeria.<br><br>US courts ruled in 2014 Abacha had stolen the money from Nigeria while he was in power from 1993 until his death in 1998.<br><br>The Doraville bank account was subsequently frozen by Jersey&#8217;s Royal Court in 2014, prompting a five-year legal battle.<br><br>The returned money will be administered by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority and will be independently audited, according to a joint statement from all three governments.<br><br>Mark Temple QC, Solicitor General and Attorney General designate of Jersey, said: &#8220;The agreement establishes a framework based on fruitful co-operation, trust and respect so that the forfeited funds can be repatriated to benefit the people of Nigeria, from whom they had been taken.&#8221;<br><br>Abubakar Malami, signing on behalf of Nigeria, described it as a &#8220;major victory&#8221; for the country.<br><br>Swiss authorities have already returned $300m to Nigeria as part of the seizures.<br><br>A further $30m in Britain and $144m in France is expected to be recovered, according to the US Department of Justice. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sani Abacha, de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998 TRENTON (Jersey, US), Feb 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The US will returned more than $300m seized from Nigeria&#8217;s former dictator to the country from the state of Jersey. The money was laundered through the US under the presidency of Sani Abacha in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,208,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60872"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}