The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) last week arrested Mrs Alison-Madueke and four others as part of the investigation into allegations of bribery and money laundering.
A full investigation by SaharaReporters has revealed several key individuals and how they 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. Kola Aluko and Walter Wagbatsoma were also named as close collaborators in the former minister’s suspicious web of financial activities.
Mr Kola Aluko
Aluko who went from 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.
There was an investigative report by SaharaReporters In July 2015 that revealed connections between Mrs. Alison-Madueke, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), and Atlantic Energy.
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
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 associated 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.
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.
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.
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.
source:naijamonitor
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