May 18, 2008
For the Original Copy of Aondoaka's Letter , Click Here>>>
Saharareporters is in possession of a letter written to French authorities by Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice Michael Aondoakaa to frustrate the prosecution of Mr. Dan Etete, former minister of petroleum resources under ex-dictator Sani Abacha.
In November 2007, a French court convicted Etete in absentia on charges of money laundering. The court sentenced Etete to three years in prison as well as a fine of 300,000 euros (440,000 dollars).
Etete’s accomplice, French businessman Richard Granier-Defferre, was also convicted of complicity in money laundering charges and sentenced to 12 months in jail and slammed with a fine of 150,000 euros.
The charges against the erstwhile petroleum minister arose from his scandalous investment in real estate in France. Etete had used 15 million Euros to purchase properties in 1999 and 2000 including a chateau in Northwest France, a Paris apartment and a luxury villa in the swanky Paris suburb of Neuilly. French investigators determined that the funds were proceeds of crime.
Etete has avoided traveling to France to serve his sentence or to pursue an appeal against his conviction.
Saharareporters has discovered that Aondoakaa covertly sent a letter to the French Ministry of Justice in September 2007 in a desperate, last-ditch effort to undermine the prosecution case against Etete.
In the letter, dated September 18 2007, Mr. Aondoakaa claimed that he could not find any evidence that his predecessors claimed that Dan Etete was involved in money laundering.
He contested the work of lawyers retained by the Federal Government, especially one Mr. Monfrini, saying they were acting without the support of the Nigerian government in assisting the French authorities to prosecute Mr. Etete.
Two credible sources told Saharareporters that the Attorney General had received $750,000 from Mr. Etete to facilitate the writing of the letter.
This is at least the third such letter written by Aondoakaa on behalf of former Nigerian public officials indicted in foreign jurisdictions for money laundering.
Twice last year, Saharareporters exposed two secret letters by Mr. Aondoakaa to UK authorities with the hope of extricating the former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, from money laundering charges in British courts. Mr. Ibori’s assets, worth more than $35 million, remain frozen on the orders of a British court. The former governor is also facing money laundering and corruption charges in Nigeria.
A top British investigator told Saharareporters that Mr. Aondoakaa “behaves as if his charge is to provide cover for men who may have defrauded the Nigerian public. That’s rather bizarre.”
The investigator said he was aware that British and European investigators were losing patience with the attorney general’s continued attempts to frustrate efforts by British and European countries to track down economic saboteurs who stashed looted funds in western banks. He said, “I’ve never encountered such a crime-loving attorney general in my more than thirty-year career as an investigator.”
Saharareporters is in possession of a letter written to French authorities by Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice Michael Aondoakaa to frustrate the prosecution of Mr. Dan Etete, former minister of petroleum resources under ex-dictator Sani Abacha.
In November 2007, a French court convicted Etete in absentia on charges of money laundering. The court sentenced Etete to three years in prison as well as a fine of 300,000 euros (440,000 dollars).
Etete’s accomplice, French businessman Richard Granier-Defferre, was also convicted of complicity in money laundering charges and sentenced to 12 months in jail and slammed with a fine of 150,000 euros.
The charges against the erstwhile petroleum minister arose from his scandalous investment in real estate in France. Etete had used 15 million Euros to purchase properties in 1999 and 2000 including a chateau in Northwest France, a Paris apartment and a luxury villa in the swanky Paris suburb of Neuilly. French investigators determined that the funds were proceeds of crime.
Etete has avoided traveling to France to serve his sentence or to pursue an appeal against his conviction.
Saharareporters has discovered that Aondoakaa covertly sent a letter to the French Ministry of Justice in September 2007 in a desperate, last-ditch effort to undermine the prosecution case against Etete.
In the letter, dated September 18 2007, Mr. Aondoakaa claimed that he could not find any evidence that his predecessors claimed that Dan Etete was involved in money laundering.
He contested the work of lawyers retained by the Federal Government, especially one Mr. Monfrini, saying they were acting without the support of the Nigerian government in assisting the French authorities to prosecute Mr. Etete.
Two credible sources told Saharareporters that the Attorney General had received $750,000 from Mr. Etete to facilitate the writing of the letter.
This is at least the third such letter written by Aondoakaa on behalf of former Nigerian public officials indicted in foreign jurisdictions for money laundering.
Twice last year, Saharareporters exposed two secret letters by Mr. Aondoakaa to UK authorities with the hope of extricating the former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, from money laundering charges in British courts. Mr. Ibori’s assets, worth more than $35 million, remain frozen on the orders of a British court. The former governor is also facing money laundering and corruption charges in Nigeria.
A top British investigator told Saharareporters that Mr. Aondoakaa “behaves as if his charge is to provide cover for men who may have defrauded the Nigerian public. That’s rather bizarre.”
The investigator said he was aware that British and European investigators were losing patience with the attorney general’s continued attempts to frustrate efforts by British and European countries to track down economic saboteurs who stashed looted funds in western banks. He said, “I’ve never encountered such a crime-loving attorney general in my more than thirty-year career as an investigator.”
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