According to an investigation, Abubakar Bagudu, the Governor of Kebbi State, helped the late Sani Abacha steal money from Nigeria in the 1990s by storing large sums of money abroad.
An investigation revealed how he sent a delegation to Singapore in search of a new haven to hide his shady assets, which are being pursued by the US Department of Justice in forfeiture proceedings.
The investigation is part of the international Pandora Papers project, which is led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Bagudu chose Asiaciti Trust, an entity infamous for helping clients hide behind opaque offshore trusts to launder illicit money across borders, after being referred by Farrer & Co., a prestigious centuries-old London legal company that has represented the British royal family.
Bagudu’s delegation, which included his brother Ibrahim Bagudu and London lawyer Ben Davies from Byrne and Partners, now a part of PCB Byrne, met with Asiaciti officials on February 23, 2010 and expressed their desire for a new structure of secrecy to oil the flow of his dirty wealth for the benefit of himself and his family.
The governor had set up offshore holdings Ridley Trust and Ridley Group in the famed tax and secrecy havens of Guernsey and the British Virgin Islands in 1997, some 13 years earlier, establishing himself as the unseen but eventual beneficiary.
However, in 2010, he desired to terminate the Ridley organization and move his assets to another, necessitating Asiaciti’s assistance in Singapore.
According to a memo from Asiaciti from 2010, the rationale was control. Ibrahim told the February 2010 meeting that he and his brother, Bagudu – “the client” – had become “disillusioned” with institutional and independent trustees (of the Ridley Trust) because they (he and his brother) had no control over their actions or inactions and feared losing the hidden assets.
He went on to say that any new trustee arrangements in Singapore “must ensure that the family does not lose “control” of the assets.”
In the months that followed, 99million euros in cash and securities was then transferred from Ridley to a new structure enabled by Asiaciti, which brushed aside red flags about Mr Bagudu’s controversial background and source of his wealth. Asiaciti acted with advice from Farrer and Co. and Byrne and Partners, now a part of PCB Byrne, documents showed.
Bagudu has long been suspected of being a key figure in the Abacha plot to steal and launder billions of dollars from Nigeria.
But it’s never been apparent how he put up intricate secrecy structures to hide stolen money, or the role of his enablers, including famous British legal firms and the Serious Organised Crimes Agency (SOCA), the predecessor of the National Crime Agency (NCA).
“As records demonstrated, Asiaciti assisted Mr Bagudu in establishing a multi-layered structure with footprints in at least three countries, namely Singapore, the Cook Islands, and the United Kingdom,” the report said. Mr Bagudu’s brother, Ibrahim, and an Asiaciti nominee are directors of Blue Holdings Trust, which was registered in Cooks Island as a “purpose trust” to “wholly” hold a Singapore-incorporated private trust company, Blue PTC Pte Ltd.
“The Blue PTC Pte Ltd is in turn the trustee of two family trusts – Blue Family Trust (1) and Blue Family Trust (2). Under each trust, then, is a Singapore family-owned investment holding company, FHIC, Blue Holdings (1) Pte Limited, and Blue Holdings (2) Pte Limited, respectively.
Mr Bagudu, his wife, seven children, and his brother, Ibrahim, were the beneficiaries of each of the family trusts and the related London-based investments. According to the minutes of several meetings we investigated, a total of 99 million euros was transferred from Ridley to the investment accounts in London via the Blue PTC in Singapore in September 2010 and distributed as follows: Waverton – seven million euros; James Hambro – ten million euros. Blue Holdings (1) (17,007,016 euros): Waverton – seven million euros; James Hambro – ten million euros. Waverton – 23 million euros; James Hambro – 58,841,163 euros. Blue Holdings (2) (81,841,163 euros): Waverton – 23 million euros; James Hambro – 58,841,163 euros.
“One of the worst cases of kleptocracy and offshore shenanigans in the world is the Abacha family’s systematic plunder of Nigeria, as well as the international quest for the stolen funds, worth billions of dollars.
Between 1998, when Mr Abacha died abruptly, and 2020, the Abacha family and their most prolific bagman, Mr Bagudu, now a governor in Nigeria’s poor Kebbi State, were able to retrieve 3.6 billion dollars.
“In 2003, Mr Bagudu was actively involved in the recovery of 163 million US dollars from Jersey, after which he negotiated a deal with the US and Jersey to return the monies to Nigeria in exchange for Jersey’s withdrawal of an extradition request and his free return to Nigeria. While awaiting extradition to Jersey, he spent six months in a federal jail in Houston, Texas. The $163 million was returned as part of a bargain to avoid extradition.
“Mr Bagudu also laundered the most recent recovery – 308 million dollars from Jersey in 2020.
According to U.S. court documents and incorporation filings from the Pandora Pap, Mr Bagudu was involved with all of the offshore front companies and bank accounts – from the British Virgin Islands to Ireland, Switzerland, England, Guernsey, and Jersey – used to steal and launder billions of dollars belonging to Nigeria under the Abacha regime as a director, signatory on accounts, or prime beneficiary.
“In stealing the funds, Mr Abacha set up what Africa Confidential described as a “Plunder Machine,” involving his family, officials, and associates such as Mr Bagudu, complemented by established western and local banks and offshore enablers. According to American investigators, the initial funding of Mr Bagudu’s Ridley’s account at Credit Agricole Indosuez, London, to the tune of 90 million U.S. dollars in 1998 was from the Par bonds and the debt-buy-back fraud.
“The Ridley assets were later transferred to the Blue structure facilitated by Asiaciti and are the outstanding defendant assets being targeted for forfeiture by the United States, court documents showed. The U.S. filed its forfeiture litigation in 2014. It said, then, the assets held by the Blue holdings, traceable to the old Ridley structure, and domiciled in London investment portfolios held with Waverton and James Hambro, were last valued at a total of 96 million euros.”
In 2020, the US government opposed a move by Nigeria to hand over $110 million to Bagudu.
According to Bloomberg, the money is part of the Abacha loot to be repatriated.
The Kebbi governor’s assets were seized along with Abacha’s because they were considered to be his reward for the “services” he rendered to the military head of state.
Court documents had showed that the payment was a product of a 2018 agreement between Bagudu and the Nigerian government.
Other documents also revealed that the Muhammadu Buhari administration was then vigorously challenging a move by the United States government to further question Bagudu, his elder brother in relation to the laundered fund.
The administration also fought to thwart America’s effort to remove the confidential classification of the agreements, which would make available for public scrutiny as well as being presented as evidence in court.
The court papers further rubbished the claim by Bagudu that he had done nothing wrong and that the United States government was merely trying to use him as an excuse to confiscate the recovery of the money by the Nigerian government.
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