January 4, 2008
Ordinarily, we would not respond in this fashion to the allegations that have been made against us in the media in recent days. However, the circumstances in which we find ourselves are not ordinary circumstances and we feel compelled to issue this statement so as to place the true facts in the public domain. We hope that, by doing this, the media and the general public will see the campaign being waged by Chief Emmanuel Nwude for what it is – a cruel and callous campaign of calumny.
The background to this matter is that between 1995 and 1998, an officer of a Brazilian bank, one Nelson Sakaguchi, was persuaded by some enterprising Nigerian confidence tricksters to steal over US$190 million from the bank and wire transfer it to these Nigerians. Chief Emmanuel Odinigwe Nwude was one of the ring leaders of this criminal gang.
Following extensive and painstaking investigations conducted in several jurisdictions, Chief Nwude and other individuals were charged with a number of offences related to the theft of the money. Almost two years after having pleaded not guilty to the charges, all the persons accused of the offences pleaded guilty to reduced charges and received various terms of imprisonment. In addition, forfeiture orders were made against specified assets, and each of them received fines in various sums. Chief Nwude was fined US$10 million. The decision of the prosecution to accept these guilty pleas, and to reduce the charges brought against the accused, was based upon agreements made by the accused and the victims of their criminal conduct. This firm represents those victims, the former majority shareholders of the Brazilian bank (Banco Noroeste S.A.).
In the case of Chief Emmanuel Nwude, the agreement he made with our clients was that he would surrender all his assets in Nigeria (the assets he declared were set out in a schedule to the agreement) and our clients would dispose of the assets
so as to realise a total net sum of US$120 million. Upon the realisation of the agreed sum, such assets as remained would be returned to him. As at December 31 2007, the sale of assets formerly belonging to Chief Nwude has resulted in the remittance of some US$74 million to our clients, and the payment by our clients of N609 million (US$5.1 million) to the Federal Government, in part satisfaction of the US$10 million fine. Our clients anticipated that Chief Nwude’s assets might not be sufficient to meet his total liability and therefore undertook to pro-rate the recoveries it made so as to ensure that the Federal Government received payments at the same time as our clients received the sums due to them. We wish to emphasise that the recovery exercise is ongoing, as the agreed sum of US$120 million is yet to be realised.
Chief Nwude’s agenda in this campaign clearly includes an effort to prevent our clients recovering the money he stole from them.
From the very outset, Chief Nwude breached the agreement with our clients by failing to produce all necessary documents of title, and by refusing to provide a statement of his assets. The assets listed in the schedule to the agreement were those discovered as a result of investigations carried out on behalf of our clients. The EFCC subsequently discovered other assets, which discovery is now the basis for his further prosecution under the EFCC Act, for failing to disclose these assets. Not only did Chief Nwude fail to comply with his obligations under the agreement, he demonstrated his lack of good faith by immediately lodging an appeal against the forfeiture order.
Our clients have, acting upon the agreement that it entered into with Chief Nwude, proceeded to dispose of the assets it has been able to bring under its control. This firm has acted for the clients in all these disposals. At no time has the EFCC been directly, or indirectly, involved in the sale of any of these assets. Indeed, before the disposal of assets commenced, the Chairman of the EFCC was explicit in his insistence that the EFCC would not be engaged in the sale of any of the forfeited assets. The assets had been forfeited to our clients and, in any event, he feared that Chief Nwude would attempt to use any involvement of the EFCC as a tool of blackmail.
The only instance of EFCC involvement in the assets was at 4 Osborne Road, Chief Nwude’s former residence. The EFCC provided security here, and following upon the sale of the property, they were present when his personal effects were evacuated. Nwude was informed when this was to occur, and he deliberately ensured that no representative of his was present. This was because he was intent on preventing the sale of the property. His personal effects were later collected from the EFCC’s custody by his brother. Video evidence of the evacuation of this property is available, as everything found in the premises were duly catalogued.
All these facts are verifiable, and we are distressed that the print media, save with one or two honourable exceptions, have not attempted to verify the information they have published, all of which was supplied by Chief Nwude, a convicted fraudster, whose stock-in-trade is the purveyance of lies. We are further distressed that the lies of such a person are now being seized upon as the basis to make unwarranted attacks on dedicated officers interested only in ensuring that this country does not remain beholden to criminals.
Reference has been made in some of the interviews given by Chief Nwude to an American citizen named “Mark”. Mark is an investigator engaged by our clients to continue the investigation of Chief Nwude’s assets. His efforts have not only helped disclose previously undeclared assets, but also the existence of a number of other victims of Chief Nwude’s criminal conduct, who have lost sums in excess of US$5 million. We cannot give details of these victims so as not to prejudice any future prosecution of Chief Nwude for these other crimes.
Having stated the foregoing, we wish to specifically indicate that some of the publications that have appeared in the media concerning us have been defamatory, and we reserve, fully, all our individual and collective rights with regard to such defamatory publications.
E. O. SOFUNDE, SAN Chief G. N. O. OSAKWE
for: SOFUNDE, OSAKWE, OGUNDIPE & BELGORE
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