Dictator's brother gets step closer to €7.6m
The Irish Government is also embroiled in an international legal battle to claim the money, which is owed to an Irish company owned by the brother of Sani Abacha, the late Nigerian dictator.
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The Irish, British and Nigerian governments are all seeking to recover €7.6m owed to Rosewood International, an Irish-registered company that was struck off the companies register 11 years ago.
Rosewood, which supplied security equipment to the Nigerian government, was struck off because Irish officials believed the company had ceased to trade.
After the company was dissolved, the Minister for Finance secured a High Court order vesting all the assets of Rosewood in the State. A private bank in the Isle of Man has €7.6m in five bank accounts. The money is owed to Rosewood.
Entitled
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The Irish Government later claimed in legal proceedings in the Isle of Man that it was entitled to the €7.6m since Rosewood no longer existed.
But yesterday Mr Abdulkadir Abacha, who claims he is the owner of Rosewood‘s shares and who travelled to Dublin for the High Court hearing, won a motion to restore Rosewood to the companies register.
The High Court victory will allow Mr Abacha, who was involved in a serious road accident and says he was unaware his company was being dissolved by the Irish authorities, to claim ownership of the €7.6m owed to the company.
Ms Justice Mary Laffoy yesterday made an order restoring Rosewood to the companies register, but said the restoration "says nothing" about ownership of the Isle of Man monies.
Three years ago, General Sani Abacha, who died in 1998, was named by anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International as the world‘s fourth most corrupt leader in recent history.
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