The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) is to return $6.5 million looted money discovered in an Irish bank account to Nigeria. A report yesterday by Bloomberg quoted the bureau, based in Dublin, Ireland, as saying the bonds were bought with money illegally taken out of Nigeria, laundered through various institutions by a former Head of State, the late General Sani Abacha, before ending up in Ireland. The CAB said the funds were the proceeds of crime linked to the late Abacha, who was alleged to have plundered more than $4 billion from Nigeria.
The $6.5 million investment bonds were discovered by the bureau in an account with HSBC Life Europe in Grand Canal Square and had been frozen by the High Court, the report said.Last March, Mr. Justice Raymond Fullam found that the funds were the proceeds of crime.
It claimed the bonds are linked to the late general’s son, Mohammed, and breach Irish laws on tax evasion. It was learnt that the bureau had started a legal process in Nigeria and the CAB would be staking a claim to the funds for the Irish Exchequer, but this is likely to be contested by the Nigerian government. ”
A Proceeds of Crime order has been served in Nigeria. The Criminal Assets Bureau will be claiming the money for the Exchequer but the Nigerians can claim the funds for themselves. Whether or not the money returns to Ireland “depends on what the Nigerians will do,” the report quoted a source as saying. An official at the Nigerian Embassy in Dublin said the embassy had no knowledge of Cab’s proceedings.
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