Revealed: How Diezani Laundered Looted Money, Her Accomplices – Sahara Reporters

 

 

An investigation by SaharaReporters has

revealed some of the ways in which former

Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke,

and her network of accomplices, family

members, and shell companies sought to

conceal and launder an astonishing amount of

the former minister’s corruptly acquired

wealth. The laundered funds are the focus of

twin investigations by British and Nigerian

anti-corruption agencies.

Last Friday, the International Corruption Unit

of the British National Crime Agency (NCA)

arrested Mrs. Alison-Madueke and four other

suspects in London.

SaharaReporters has exclusively obtained

intelligence documents and briefing on

financial information regarding Mrs. Alison-

Madueke’s extensive acts of corruption and

money laundering. Our investigation also

involved interviews with several individuals in

possession of highly sensitive information

about the illicit flow of funds to the former

minister’s front companies and individuals.

An intelligence analyst with intimate

knowledge of the embattled ex-minister’s

family and business network told

SaharaReporters that UK investigators were

focusing on several real estate properties in

the United Kingdom. The source added that

“[Diezani Alison-Madueke] was most likely

aware that the Crown Prosecution [in the UK]

was investigating her properties going back as

early as 2013.”

SaharaReporters learned that British

prosecutors decided to be low-key about their

investigation of Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s

suspicious ownership of real estate a$$ets in

the UK because the UK Foreign Office and

security establishment did not want to

unsettle UK-Nigerian ties by going after the

former minister during the administration of

former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Sources in the Nigerian government and law

enforcement told SaharaReporters that the

National Crime Agency (NCA), which arrested

Mrs. Alison-Madueke and four other suspects

last Friday, did so unilaterally and without the

cooperation of the Economic and Financial

Crimes Commission (EFCC). However, once

the EFCC read media reports about Mrs.

Alison-Madueke’s arrest, their agents moved

swiftly to search her residences in Abuja and

elsewhere in Nigeria. The EFCC’s action led to

media reports, now established to be

misleading, that UK and Nigerian authorities

were coordinating their investigations of the

former minister.

Mrs. Alison-Madueke was the most powerful

minister in the Jonathan administration, and

had long been linked to shady deals and

policies in Nigeria’s oil sector. She fled

Nigeria in May, days before the official end of

her tenure as Minister of Petroleum and the

inauguration of President Muhammadu

Buhari’s administration.

Earlier in May, SaharaReporters reported that

Mrs. Alison-Madueke booked herself a seat on

the same flight in which then President-elect

Buhari was traveling to London, and made

awkward attempts to strike up a conversation

with Mr. Buhari. A source on the flight told

SaharaReporters that Mr. Buhari quietly

ignored the former minister during the flight.

A Nigerian who met Mrs. Alison-Madueke in

the UK said the former minister claimed she

was receiving medical treatment.

How Alison-Madueke Looted Nigeria As Oil

Minister:

Two of our sources said that the former

Petroleum Minister acquired an astonishing

sum of looted funds through shady dealings

that included theft of kerosene subsidy

payments, manipulation of fuel subsidy

payments, so-called swap deals in which she

used a number of personal and corporate

fronts to sell Nigerian crude oil that was

meant to be refined and brought back for

local consumption, fraudulent acquisition of

marginal oil fields and allocation of other

lucrative oil field to fronts.

Our sources disclosed that Mrs. Alison-

Madueke’s most daring fraudulent deals were

her strategic partnership agreements with two

respective companies officially owned by her

most notorious fronts, Jide Omokore and Kola

Aluko. The agreements were worth over $6

billion, according to one source. He added

that another avenue of money laundering by

the former minister was the controversial

Malabu deal in which she, former Attorney

General, Mohammed Adoke, and President

Goodluck Jonathan may have pocketed close

to $2 billion between them.

Our financial intelligence source said Mrs.

Alison-Madueke was able to get away with

her deals and schemes in the oil industry

because she was “one of [former President]

Jonathan’s money managers.” The same

source pointed out that the Jonathan

administration had designed the Petroleum

Industry Bill (PIB) to give Mr. Jonathan and

Mrs. Alison-Madueke “sweeping discretionary

powers to award contracts, licenses, and

leases for the Nigerian petroleum industry.”

Accomplices and Companies in Mrs. Alison-

Madueke’s Orbit:

SaharaReporters learned that several key

individuals helped the former minister to hide

her loot. Two separate intelligence reports

identified one Donald Chidi Amamgbo as a key

figure in Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s money

laundering activities. Mr. Omokore, Mr. Aluko

and Walter Wagbatsoma were also named as

close collaborators in the former minister’s

suspicious web of financial activities.

Mr. Aluko, who went to near-anonymity to

become a flashy, high-flying and yacht-owning

“entrepreneur,” was identified as a “money-

launderer” for Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Alison-

Madueke. Our source claimed that Mr. Aluko

recently bought several real estate properties

in Los Angeles and New York ranging between

$8 million and $23 million. Recently, rap

mogul, Jay Z, and his wife, Beyoncé, spent

their vacation on a $50 million yacht owned

by Mr. Aluko.

According to our source, Mr. Aluko’s

flamboyant lifestyle led Mr. Jonathan and

Mrs. Alison-Madueke to decide to use more

discreet fronts. Besides, the source added,

Mr. Aluko also fell out with the former

Petroleum Minister Diezani when he

absconded with funds he was supposed to

have laundered for her and the former

president.

Mr. Aluko’s Atlantic Energy, formerly known

as Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited

(AEDCNL), was one of the major corporate

entities used to stash away the former

minister’s looted funds. Mr. Aluko established

the company in Zug, Switzerland, along with

Nigerian national Temidayo Adeoye Okusame

and British national Oscar Seda Mbeche.

In July 2015, SaharaReporters had published

an investigative report that revealed

connections between Mrs. Alison-Madueke,

Nigerian Petroleum Development Company

(NPDC), and Atlantic Energy. This website

reported, “on July 19, 2010, Atlantic Energy

Drilling Concept Limited (AEDCNL) was

incorporated as a portfolio company,” adding

that this was barely three months after Mrs.

Alison-Madueke a$$umed office as the

Minister of Petroleum Resources. The report

continued: “Atlantic Energy, even without prior

record of successful experience in the oil and

gas sector, announced that it had entered into

a Strategic Alliance Agreement (SAA) with the

Nigerian Petroleum Development Company

(NPDC) in April 2011. That was exactly six

months before AEDCNL was legally born.”

One oil industry expert told SaharaReporters

that there was widespread shock when Mrs.

Alison-Madueke awarded an unknown

company like Atlantic Energy a strategic

agreement with the NPDC “without following

any process as stipulated in the government

procurement laws and policy.” The stated that

oil industry operators knew that the deal

between Atlantic Energy and the NPDC “was

an unholy arrangement” between the former

minister, top NPDC officials, Kola Aluko and

Jide Omokore. He identified Mr. Omokore as a

“controversial business mogul” and political

financier.

According to a report published by the Natural

Resource Governance Institute, Atlantic

Energy had entered into strategic alliance

deals with the NPDC for at least five oil

blocks or oil mining leases.

Walter Wagbatsoma, also listed as a “money

manager” for the former Petroleum Minister,

runs several companies that investigators

found to be entangled in Mrs. Alison-

Madueke’s financial activities. An intelligence

report discussing Mr. Wagbatsoma’s business

dealings found that “he holds a private plane,

said to be bought by [Mrs. Alison-Madueke],

probably in 2011, in trust for the Petroleum

Minister.”

However, Mr. Wagbatsoma is a$$ociated with

a shadowy energy company named Ontario Oil

and Gas, which trades Nigerian crude on

international markets and whose directors are

currently facing money-laundering trial in

Nigerian courts. According to the Berne

Declaration, an independent watchdog

organization, Ontario Oil and Gas continues to

export Nigerian crude despite accusations by

the Nigerian government that the company

misappropriated more than 4.2 billion naira—

and arrests of the firm’s executives by the

EFCC. According to the company’s own

website, it exports at least 2 million barrels of

crude oil a month.

The Natural Resource Governance Institute

reported that Ontario Oil and Gas, along with

another company, Aiteo, saw “their shares of

the Nigerian crude and products markets grow

rapidly under the Jonathan government,”

despite their very limited experience. The

report also noted: “Ontario relied on a few

foreign traders to take its [petroleum]

allocation to market.”

Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s third accomplice, who

was described as such in two separate

intelligence reports leaked to SaharaReporters,

is Donald Chidi Amamgbo. Mr. Amamgbo

reportedly studied law at Howard University in

Washington, DC at the same time Mrs. Alison-

Madueke was studying there as a student of

architecture. It is believed that they met each

other in DC.

According to biographical information

available in intelligence reports, in January

2012 Mr. Amamgbo was suspended from

practicing law in California, where he

relocated, for one year. However, his main

focus seemed to have already turned to

managing three companies under his

ownership, specifically Tidax Energy, Mezcor

SA, and Lynear SA.

Tradax, Mezcor, and Lynear are all based out

of Geneva, Switzerland and all three are

connected to a Portuguese national, Daniel

Roy Joanes, and an American national,

Richard Levinson. The Natural Resources

Governance Institute characterized Tridax as

an example of suspicious conduct because

the firm’s “corporate structures stretch

outside Nigeria.” The report found that Mr.

Amamgbo owned 49% of Tridax with the

remaining 51% of the ownership belonging to

Tridax Oil domiciled in Switzerland. Further

tracing the corporate structure of Tridax, it

was revealed that 100% of it is owned by a

sister company based in Malta, with 99% of

that company owned by Calpenergy Fund in

Gibraltar, with 67% of it owned in turn by

Daniel Roy Joanes, with the remaining 33%

owned by Turicum Private Bank also located

in Gibraltar. This kind of circuitous ownership

arrangement often typifies an attempt by a

corporate entity’s real owners to hide their

identities.

SaharaReporters obtained an intelligence

report that stated, “Mezcor SA is clearly the

lead company of the three run by Amamgbo.”

Mr. Amamgbo also owns 49% of Mezcor, with

the remaining 51% owned by Mr. Joanes and

Mr. Levinson. Mr. Joanes, who previously

worked as an a$$et manager for Clariden Leu,

later worked for Bank Hapoalim. He also owns

NFS Partners, which is co-located in the same

office as Mezcor in Geneva.

Mr. Levinson is described in one report as

having “a scandalous past” and has the

dubious distinction of owning one of the first

companies to be suspended by the US

government for fraudulent activity during

reconstruction after the Iraq War in 2003.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “a [US]

federal jury in Alexandria, VA found that

Custer Battles [owned by Levinson] defrauded

the US government of $3 million by filing

faked invoices.”

US authorities later discovered that Mr.

Levinson’s companies billed the American

government $10 million for work estimated to

actually cost only $4 million. In a curious

corporate sleight of hand, Mr. Levinson sold

Custer Battles to Danubia Global Inc., a

company based in Bucharest, Romania, for

one dollar. It turned out that he owned

Danubia as well.

One intelligence investigation found that Mr.

Levinson “acts as a director of the five

companies [in which] Daniel Roy Joanes is

also a director.”

According to another investigation, Tridax is a

beneficiary of one of “38 contracts for

1,179,000 barrels per day crude lifting

awarded by the [Nigerian] Federal

Government last year.” The NNPC, which

awards these contracts, also awarded a

contract to Mezcor SA and two companies it

worked with—India Oil Company and Fujairah

Refinery.

These companies’ ties to Mrs. Alison-

Madueke extend beyond questionable crude

oil lifting contracts and her relationship with

Mr. Donald Chidi Amamgbo. Investigators

showed SaharaReporters documents that

established that Timi John Agama, the former

Petroleum Minister’s younger brother, has a

financial stake and is a part owner of both

Mezcor and Tridax.

The Madueke-Agama Family Business

Network:

SaharaReporters has learned, from profiles of

Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s sons, brothers, and

nephews, that the family’s core businesses

are suspiciously located at a single address:

Unit 8, Quebec Buildings, Manchester M3 7DU

in the United Kingdom. The main business is

listed as Hadley Petroleum Solutions Ltd. But

other corporate entities registered at the

same location include Ryan and Bell Solutions

Ltd., Callserv Ltd., Parrot Mobile Ltd., Mail

Express Ltd., and Stone International Ltd.

All these companies are a$$ociated with

close members of Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s

family, including nephews Abu Fari, Abiye

Agama, Somze Agama, and her son, Ugonna

Madueke. According to one intelligence report,

“key in the Diezani Alison-Madueke family

business structure is her elder brother, Doye,

who is a Pentecostal Archbishop based in

Manchester, UK. SaharaReporters learned that

in addition to his business activities with the

Madueke-Agama family, Bishop Agama

presides over the Apostolic Pastor*l Congress

located in Manchester, UK.

Before becoming part of the clergy in 1994,

Mr. Doye Agama worked as a

telecommunications consultant to the oil

industry, central and local government and the

emergency services.

Investigators told SaharaReporters that Mrs.

Alison- Madueke owns a number of properties

in the United Kingdom and the United States,

under a variety of names, often those of her

family. One property, located in London at 22

Parkwood, St. Edmunds Terrace, St John’s

Wood, London, NW8 7QQ is registered in the

name of her mother, Beatrice Agama. Her

younger brother, Timi John Agama, has a

property registered under his name at 67,

Wades Hill, Winchmore Hill, London, N21

1AU.

The former minister’s elder brother, Bishop

Agama, has a property located at 27 Tavistock

Square, Holburn, London, WC1H 9HH

registered to his name.

Winihin Ayuli-Jemide, a younger sister to Mrs.

Alison-Madueke, is active in organizing a

series of conferences ostensibly to empower

African women. Her seminars are called the

Winihin Jemide Series. Curiously, her

conferences and seminars are often held in

cities like London and Vienna where her elder

sister, Mrs. Alison-Madueke, is suspected to

have business interests. The former minister

was often invited to speak at the

conferences.

In the United States, the former Petroleum

Minister owns three properties that are

registered under her maiden name, Diezani K.

Agama. They include a posh apartment

located at 1220 West Highway, Silver Spring,

Maryland, with the zip code of 20910. Her

son, Ugonna Madueke, has at least three

properties registered in his name, two in

Virginia and one in Maryland. The former

minister’s son’s properties in Virginia are

located at 11711 Scooter Lane, Fairfax, VA

22030, and 4227 Summit Manor Ct, Fairfax,

VA 22033. His property in Maryland is at

13116 Silver Maple Ct, Bowie, MD 20715.

The former minister’s husband, Admiral Alison

Amaechina Madueke, was Nigeria’s former

Chief of Naval Staff. On retiring, Mr. Madueke

went into the maritime services business,

serving as the chairman or director of

numerous companies, including Radam

Maritime Services Ltd.