SPECIAL REPORT: Inside five international corruption cases involving Atiku, ex-wife

On 17 September, an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Arbitration Tribunal in Paris named Atiku Abubakar, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, in its final award regarding suspicious dealings surrounding the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project contract.

The tribunal mentioned Atiku, who was Nigeria’s vice president when the contract was awarded to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, in its findings on the circumstances surrounding the stalled project, expected to boost Nigeria’s electricity generation.

Specifically, the tribunal found that Leno Adesanya, the promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, made a $500,000 payment on 30 January 2003, from the Swiss bank account of his offshore company, China Castle Investments Limited, to a US bank account belonging to Atiku’s former wife, Jennifer Douglas.

Atiku and Ms Douglas, a dual US-Nigerian citizen, have for years been linked to several suspicious international financial transactions, particularly in the United States, where that country’s authorities flagged large sums transferred through offshore companies.

The former vice president and Ms Douglas officially got married in 2003 and later divorced in June 2021.

Documents reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, including a report by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, show that Ms Douglas opened more than 30 US bank accounts in her name or in the names of the Jennifer Douglas Abubakar Family Trust, the Gede Foundation and the American University of Nigeria (AUN).

The committee’s report, released on 4 February 2010, showed that Ms Douglas lived in a luxury home in Potomac, Maryland, an affluent suburb of Washington, DC. It also found that she repeatedly told banks where she opened accounts that her husband, Atiku, transferred millions of dollars to her accounts through offshore companies.

These disclosures were made even though she listed her occupation variously as “student”, “homemaker” or “unemployed” in the account-opening documents.

In the Mambilla case, the tribunal found evidence of suspected payment to Ms Douglas in connection with the contract award, while Sunrise Power’s promoter failed to establish otherwise.

The tribunal’s findings on the Mambilla contract are the latest and the fifth instance in which Atiku and his former wife have faced allegations of corruption or linked to suspicious financial transactions abroad.

People familiar with Atiku’s dealings have claimed that corruption allegations against him contributed to repeated difficulties obtaining US visas.

Reports have also suggested that he could only obtain a US visa when contesting elections. However, this newspaper has yet to independently establish the precise reasons for the visa refusals the politician suffered over the years.

Atiku worked in the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for about 20 years, retiring in 1989 as a deputy director. He subsequently spent about a decade in the private sector before becoming vice-president to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999. He held the office for eight years, until May 2007.

The former president is often named among Nigeria’s most affluent personalities, a development the politician attributed to “wise investments, hard work and sheer luck of being at the right place at the right time.”

Before the Mambilla contract saga, Atiku had been previously named in other corruption cases.

PREMIUM TIMES revisits four other fraud or bribery-related allegations involving Nigeria’s former number two citizen, examining how he was accused of moving suspect funds into the United States through offshore companies and bank accounts linked to his former wife, as well as the evidence presented against him in those cases.

Siemens Bribery

The Siemens bribery scandal is another major international corruption case involving Atiku, his former wife, a multinational corporation and Nigerian government telecommunications contractors.

The scandal centred on allegations that Siemens, a German technology and engineering conglomerate, paid bribes to Nigerian government officials to secure telecommunications contracts during Mr Obasanjo’s administration.

The allegations became public after the late Umaru Yar’Adua succeeded Mr Obasanjo as president. In December 2007, the Yar’Adua administration suspended further dealings with Siemens amid international scrutiny of the company’s alleged bribery activities.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged that Siemens’ telecommunications subsidiary paid at least $4.5 million in bribes in connection with four Nigerian telecommunications contracts valued at approximately $130 million.

The payments were allegedly channelled through fictitious consultancy agreements and intermediaries, including a bank account linked to Jennifer Douglas, Atiku’s wife at the time he served as vice president. The payments were reportedly facilitated through various methods, including large cash withdrawals from bank cash desks, with the money subsequently transported to Nigeria in suitcases.

Of the alleged bribe payments connected to the four telecommunications projects, approximately $2.8 million was routed through a bank account in Potomac, Maryland, held in Ms Douglas’ name. She was still married to Mr Atiku at the time and was living in the United States.

Ms Douglas reportedly represented a business consultant who entered into fictitious consultancy agreements with Siemens to provide “supply, installation, and commissioning” services, despite performing no actual work for the company.

According to US SEC documents reviewed by this newspaper, the agreements were used to facilitate bribe payments to Nigerian government officials.

Other alleged corrupt payments included the purchase of watches worth approximately $172,000 for Nigerian officials identified in Siemens’ internal records as “P.” and “V.P.” The designations were believed to refer to Nigeria’s president and vice-president.

In November 2008, Siemens agreed to pay approximately $1.6 billion in penalties to US and German authorities over violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), following investigations into its use of bribes to secure business contracts.

Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), subsequently investigated the alleged bribery payments and, in October 2010, filed charges against Siemens entities and individuals. However, in November 2010, the federal government reached an out-of-court settlement with Siemens Nigeria. Under the agreement, the company reportedly agreed to pay approximately $46 million in damages, following which the government withdrew the charges against it.

Jefferson bribery saga

US investigators also traced a bribery scandal involving former US Congressman William Jefferson to Nigeria, bringing Atiku and some of his associates under scrutiny over alleged bribery-related activities.

The scandal, popularly known as the Jefferson bribery scandal, involved Mr Jefferson, a US-based information technology company called iGate, and Netlink Digital Television (NDTV), a Nigerian telecommunications company.

iGate sought to expand its business into Africa, particularly Nigeria. Vaernon Jackson, the company’s chief executive at the time, approached Mr Jefferson for assistance in using his political position to influence the Nigerian government in favour of iGate’s business interests.

In 2006, Mr Jackson pleaded guilty to bribery-related offences before the US Department of Justice. According to US court documents, he admitted that iGate paid Mr Jefferson more than $400,000 in exchange for his assistance in promoting the company’s business interests in Nigeria.

Mr Jefferson, who was the congressman representing Louisiana, subsequently became involved in the proposed deal and arranged a meeting between iGate representatives, Atiku and some of his associates, including businessman Oyewole Fashawe. At the meeting, Mr Jefferson urged the Nigerian officials and business interests to support iGate’s entry into the country. He also proposed a partnership between iGate and NDTV, under which the two companies would share revenue generated from their collaboration.

According to court records, Mr Jefferson discussed paying Atiku $100,000 in cash as a bribe to influence the partnership deal. He claimed to have delivered the money to the former vice president. However, during a subsequent search of Mr Jefferson’s home, FBI agents discovered $90,000 in marked cash, wrapped in aluminium foil and hidden in a freezer.

In June 2006, the US Department of Justice and the FBI wrote to Nigerian authorities seeking documents and information relating to Atiku and others connected to Mr Jefferson’s business activities.

The request sought correspondence involving Atiku, Mr Jefferson, iGate and NDTV, as well as information on relevant Nigerian government agencies, companies, bank records, loans and financial transactions.

The US request prompted then-President, Mr Obasanjo, to direct the EFCC to investigate the allegations.

In the course of its investigation, the EFCC traced transactions connected to the proposed establishment of iGate and NDTV. It reportedly found that Atiku personally made an initial payment of ₦30 million towards securing NDTV’s headquarters in Abuja through an account associated with another entity he was associated with, Marine Float Limited.

The US investigation eventually resulted in criminal convictions. Mr Jefferson pleaded guilty to corruption-related charges and was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2009. His sentence was later reduced to 12 years following an appeal. He was released in 2017 after serving about five years.

The PTDF funds

In 2006, an audit and forensic report conducted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) investigating the mismanagement of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) funds indicted Atiku.

Titled “The Report of the Special Audit/Forensic Investigation of Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) From 1999 to 31 May, 2006,” it said Atiku approved the release of $20m from the treasury and subsequent placement in Trans International Bank without appropriation and approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The report noted that the action was improper and amounted to abuse of office.

The Commission investigated a request from the US Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice, on 22 June 2006, on transactions involving iGate, NDTV and related persons and entities.

The investigation subsequently covered the management and placement of PTDF funds under Atiku’s supervision as vice president.

It specifically examined the federal government’s approval of US$125 million for PTDF purposes; the placement of substantial portions of the funds with Equatorial Trust Bank and Trans International Bank; and a subsequent US$20 million transaction.

It also examined transactions involving NDTV, a former PTDF Executive Secretary, Yusuf Abubakar, and other prominent Nigerians.

The forensic investigators noted that the PTDF under Atiku’s watch did not operate on formal annual budgets and that no goals were specified for each department and for the fund as a whole at the beginning of each year.

They said that expenditures were embarked upon as the need arose and without restriction, stressing, “Therefore, the Fund operated without adequate planning and control.”

According to the investigators, this could be the reason for the general mismanagement of the fund, through its placement in fixed deposits with banks with an unsound financial base.

Wondering why, for instance, the PTDF would place $30million in 2003 in TIB that was already having cash flow problems, the investigators concluded that the “long-standing relationship between the VP (Atiku) and Otunba (Oyewole) Fasawe could be the reason that informed the VP’s choice of TIB for the deposit” as he was “a prime and influential customer of TIB.”

“The immediate transfer of the additional funds to TIB, with its not-too-spectacular rating in the banking industry, is likely to justify the allegation of the US Congressman, William J. Jefferson, that NDTV delayed the payment of a contract sum to iGate because they (NDTV) were expecting funds allegedly related to PTDF.”

The investigators said despite the liquidity problems of TIB, it granted over N1.5billion net of interest to Mr Fasawe’s related companies, MOFAS Shipping Co. Limited and Netlink Digital Television (NDTV), as well as another N300million loan to Transvagagri Nigeria Limited, a company owned by Ahmed Vanderpuije, also a director of NTDV.

The forensic experts said several huge payments were made from the MOFAS Account between July 2003 and July 2004.

“For instance, Alhaji Umar Pariya (Personal Assistant to VP Atiku) received over N104million; PDP National Headquarters collected N100million; Mr Bodunde collected N17million; Chief Lamidi Adedibu collected N1 million, while Polony & Co. Ltd. received N90 million,” they said.

The report also said that Atiku benefited from the account to the tune of N61 million, while his Marine Float Company received N250 million.

Subsequently, former President Olusegun Obasanjo set up an Administrative Panel headed by the then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bayo Ojo, to examine the EFCC report.

The Bayo Ojo panel reported that Atiku approved the placement of PTDF funds in banks instead of their immediate application to the projects for which they were approved, thereby abusing his office.

Although others were equally implicated, it recommended that the vice president be held accountable for the $20 million transaction, which occurred under his supervision.

However, as a sitting vice president, Atiku could not be prosecuted because of the constitutional immunity provided under Section 308 of the Nigerian Constitution. Consequently, it recommended that the matter be referred to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CBC).

However, the former vice president, who was at the time the presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress (AC) for the 2007 election, faulted the Commission’s investigation as selective and said that the EFCC report and that of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry were a premeditated political action intended to halt his presidential ambition.

The Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation, in a statement signed at the time by Garba Shehu, claimed that the federal government might have breached the law in its handling of the fund, as he alleged that contrary to the enabling law, only $145million of the $700million realised in the 2002/2003 bidding rounds was remitted to the fund’s account.

He said this violated the PTDF law, which required that proceeds from oil block licensing rounds be paid into the fund’s account to train Nigerians in specialised fields.

Nevertheless, on 22 September 2006, the federal government filed an 18-count charge before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) against the vice president and other indicted officials.

But Atiku rushed to the Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge the CCT suit, arguing that he still enjoyed immunity, a claim the court upheld in December of that year.

In April 2007, the Court of Appeal affirmed, in an appeal filed by the Attorney General, that the CCT proceedings were criminal in nature and could not be sustained against a sitting vice president.

The Senate also constituted an ad hoc committee headed by Victor Ndoma-Egba (Cross River Central), a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, to probe the PTDF transactions. The committee reported that there was no direct evidence of personal enrichment, pointing instead to procedural and administrative lapses.

The US Senate panel’s probe of suspicious financial transactions

A US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report linked Atiku and his former wife, Ms Douglas, to suspicious financial transactions involving the transfer of funds into the United States between 2000 and 2008.

The report found that Atiku and Ms Douglas used a network of accounts at US financial institutions to move more than $40 million in suspect funds into the country through multiple wire transfers from offshore corporations based in Germany, Nigeria, Panama, the British Virgin Islands and Switzerland.

Nearly $25 million of the funds was transferred into more than 30 US bank accounts opened in the names of Ms Douglas, the Jennifer Douglas Abubakar Family Trust, the Gede Foundation, and the American University of Nigeria (AUN).

Ms Douglas opened 18 of the accounts at Citibank, four at Chevy Chase Bank, six at Wachovia Bank and three at Eagle Bank in Maryland, among other financial institutions.

According to the report, the four banks opened accounts for Ms Douglas in many cases without knowing she was a politically exposed person (PEP). Some relied on third-party vendors with incomplete PEP databases or had inadequate due diligence procedures.

As financial institutions began questioning offshore companies transferring funds into Ms Douglas’ accounts, they eventually closed them. She subsequently opened new ones at other financial institutions, sometimes with the assistance of her US lawyer, Edward Weidenfeld.

The report also found that Mr Weidenfeld received $3.4 million from offshore entities to pay Atiku’s legal bills and fund an AUN account he opened at SunTrust Bank. Over five years, AUN received $14 million.

In each instance, the report said, the bank, law firm or university was informed that the funds originated from Atiku.

US government placing Atiku, families under surveillance

A 2020 investigation by PREMIUM TIMES, published as part of the global FinCEN Files investigation, revealed that transactions involving Atiku, his family, and companies linked to him were subject to heightened scrutiny within the international banking system.

The investigation was based on confidential Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed by banks with the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an agency of the US Department of the Treasury. The reports showed that banks raised concerns about several transactions involving Atiku, his wives and companies associated with him.

One of the entities whose transactions were suspicious was Guernsey Trust Company Nigeria Limited (GTCN), which held Atiku’s 16 per cent interest in Intels Nigeria Limited. GTCN was established in 2003 to manage assets associated with a blind trust created after Atiku became vice-president.

In March 2012, Habib Bank Limited New York (HBLNY) flagged a series of transactions involving GTCN. One of them was a $1,018,5 million transfer from GTCN to Tanjay Real Estate Brokers in Dubai to purchase a property for Rukaiyatu Abubakar, one of Atiku’s wives. Another $200,000 transfer to Tanjay was flagged, along with a separate transaction involving about CHF741,000.

The bank’s scrutiny also extended to Amina Titi Abubakar, Atiku’s first wife and a former second lady of Nigeria. Records showed that GTCN transferred funds from Swiss accounts to London to cover her personal expenses.

Following its review, HBLNY placed Atiku, Rukaiyatu, Amina Titi, GTCN, Tanjay and other related individuals and entities into its internal system for real-time monitoring of potentially suspicious transactions.

The banking scrutiny was linked to concerns in the 2010 investigation by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which examined the movement of funds involving Atiku and his associates and identified about $40 million associated with him, including approximately $25 million transferred into more than 30 US bank accounts belonging to Ms Douglas, Atiku’s ex-wife.

The Senate investigation examined transfers involving GTCN and offshore companies, including LetsGo Ltd. Inc. and Sima Holding Ltd. The transactions occurred largely during Atiku’s tenure as Nigeria’s vice president, when he was a politically exposed person and therefore subject to enhanced scrutiny by financial institutions.

The scrutiny did not end with the transactions involving his family. In 2017, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas filed a SAR concerning 27 transactions totalling $11.14 million connected to Intels Nigeria Limited. In the report, the bank referred to Atiku’s connection to Intels and cited prior negative information and investigations into allegations of fraud, corruption, and money laundering.

Atiku’s movement from the US to Dubai

When the US inquiry into his financial affairs and those of his family members became unbearable for Atiku, he sold his luxury home in Potomac, Maryland, and moved to Dubai.

In March 2018, PREMIUM TIMES reported that the former vice president and his then-wife, Ms Douglas, sold the property for about $2.95 million. The seven-bedroom property, measuring more than 7,000 square feet, was acquired by the couple in December 1999 for $1.75 million, before Atiku became Nigeria’s vice-president.

The property attracted the attention of US investigators. In 2005, the FBI searched the mansion as part of an investigation involving former US Congressman William Jefferson, who was accused of taking bribes in connection with business dealings in Africa, including Nigeria. At the time, the FBI investigation brought further scrutiny to financial and business relationships involving Atiku and people around him.

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The sale of the mansion came against the backdrop of Atiku’s prolonged difficulty obtaining US visa. In December 2017, he said his US visa application had remained under administrative processing, although he denied that he was avoiding the country.

The mansion was initially listed for about $3.25 million in January 2018 before being sold through an online auction for approximately $2.95 million.

Atiku’s spokesperson, Paul Ibe, did not respond to calls and messages requesting his comments for this report.

However, Mr Ibe had previously denied that the sale was connected to the FBI investigation or any legal pressure. He said the property was no longer serving its intended purpose and that the proceeds would be reinvested in businesses owned by the former vice president.