May 9, 2010
While former Delta State Governor James Ibori continued to hide from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission last week, prosecutors in London were one step closer to sending to jail the associates and relatives who helped his giant looting and money-laundering operations in the United Kingdom, which left his sister, Christine Ibie-Ibori, with a whopping wealth of £2 million pounds and property.In last Thursday’s closing arguments at the Southwark Crown Court in London in the case against Christine Ibie-Ibori, his sister; Udoamaka Okoronkwo, his mistress; and Bimpe Pogoson, his private secretary, the prosecution extensively detailed its case using an armada of tools that included email messages between Ibori and his associates, and within a broad network of accomplices that paraded all kinds of characters, including government officials and bankers.Characterizing Ibori, Sasha Wass QC, for the prosecution, regretted Ibori’s absence at the trial, noting that in one of the emails to an associate, he had declared, "I'll stay away from Britain as I don't want to be too brave or stupid".
That had not stopped him, however, from trying to manipulate the court proceedings from afar, Ms. Wass said, describing Ibori as “a proven liar and a thief” who has lied all his life and who enriched himself once he became governor.
She noted that in 1999, Ibori was having trouble paying his mortgage, a situation that changed radically once he got into office. She asked the jury to ask themselves such questions as: Where did the money come from? Was the money legitimate?
Among the revelations in the prosecution’s summation is that the current state governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, who was Secretary of the State Government to Ibori, personally authorized payments that were made to Christine Ibie-Ibori, the governor’s sister. Those payments, said Ms. Wass, included one of £69,000 and another of £79,000. Reference was also made to 39 million Naira in cash, which was delivered to her in two boxes. A company called KOLN was used as a vehicle to transfer funds out of Nigeria for the benefit of the governor’s sister, and into her account.
The prosecution told the jury that prior to the arrival in power of her brother, Christine Ibie Ibori lived in a house, which didn't even belong to her, but thereafter, she owned three properties in London and lied in her mortgage applications. And despite her protestations when she was arrested, when given an opportunity in court to defend herself she had nothing to say. And although she had also alleged she received payment for contracts with the Delta State commissioner of sports, no evidence could be found to back up that assertion, which also raised the question of the legitimacy of the funds.
The prosecution wondered how being a housewife in England qualified Christine to do business with the commissioner in Nigeria. In addition, it turned out that Mr Solomon Ogba, the sports commissioner, was himself using Christine’s 77 Woodall Crescent residential address as his postal address.
Wass, QC drew further attention to the monies that Ibori’s mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo, whom she described as “Ibori’s banker,” also deposited into Christine’s accounts. She said evidence about bogus contracts was found in a search of Christine's house conducted by DC Clark. Curiously, when Mr. Clark was in the dock, the defence did not ask any questions of him in order to verify and support Christine’s case. The point, stressed by Wass, was that Christine lacked a defence.
She said Udoamakaa explained her regular payments to Christine as arising from a “money exchange” business in which she exchanged Naira. But asked what business Christine was in, Udoamakaa said she did not know. “The reality is that Christine was laundering money from the Delta State and she couldn’t tell anyone where she got it from. The desire to conceal source of money is a hallmark of a money launderer”.
She further gave the example of the sum of £500,000 that Christine and Udoamaka Okoronkwo put up for bail for Terry Waya during forfeiture proceedings in 2005. When his solicitor sent them a letter in case they wanted to intervene to recover the money, they declined. It was obvious that they were afraid they would have had to show where the money came from.”
The prosecution said the case against Adebimpe Pogoson has followed the same pattern of money that could only be proceeds of crime coming in from Nigeria. As soon as Ibori became governor, Wass said, he put his fullest trust in Ms. Pogoson to handle all the money, from which he distanced himself. There were four main transactions, one of which involved diversion of funds into Christine's account for her to invest in property. In another account, which involved MER company, money was diverted from Barclays in Knightsbridge to Schroders in Switzerland; that was to be used to finance the purchase of a jet for Ibori.
Wass noted that Pogoson did not work for the Delta State government, even though she was being paid by state. She was told to open accounts in her name and make payments in Ibori’s name. When asked, Pogoson only answered that “friends” were giving her the money, but there were no documents or any evidence to support it. The irresistible inference was that the monies flowing through these accounts were criminal proceeds.
She stressed that Ibori set up and used various companies, such as KOLN, ALCAL, CHARTERHOUSE, and that he employed Pogoson to breach the Nigerian constitution concerning the award of contracts to friends, family and companies belonging to one’s own companies, such as MER, which undoubtedly made Ibori a very rich man.
Ms. Wass described Udoamakaa Okoronkwo as the “High Priestess” of Ibori’s money laundering activities” who forged documents for him and bought properties for him. In return, she was well looked after.
She said there was a variety of accounts that were used by Udoamakaa immediately Ibori became governor, but cited “Account Number 5” as the most important, as “regular and substantial “sums were paid into it in cash with a few cheques or transfers. She gave examples of such deposits as: £64,000, £334,073, £339,000.
She also said that “enormous amounts” were deposited in Naira, leaving a trail, with £35,000 deposited into her bank in just two days. “The truth is that this is money laundering on a large scale and Mrs. Okoronkwo was washing James Ibori’s money.”
She said that Udoamakaa Okoronkwo was awarded contracts and that were profitable. Noting her ability to forge documents, she said that in just one contract, she made a profit of up to £532,000 and got a Range Rover.
As a demonstration of the vast reaches of the corruption in the Delta State Government under Ibori, one of the documents in the case shows that David Edevbie, who was the Delta State Commissioner of Finance gave tips to some of Ibori’s operatives on how to deal with the EFCC. Edevbie was later sponsored to higher office by James Ibori, and he became late Umaru Yar’Adua’s Private Secretary. He was later declared wanted by the Metropolitan Police in one of the cases relating to Ibori. Mr. Edevbie has yet to be fired by the Jonathan Goodluck government.
This e-mail was addressed to Bimpe Pogoson (nee Faloye) at bpogoson@xxxx on Wednesday, 13 July 2005 from "Tinuola Faloye" reads:
Dear Sis, I have completed the task and will mail the statements and retirements to you. The only thing delaying is the Citizens (meaning "Citizens Bank Nigeria) statements for the closed accounts. They have been reluctant to re-print them for me as this will require recalling the files we told them to get rid back unto the system. I could explain this to the Chairman if you want me to. However you could call Mrs. Ikpo Phillips of Citizens Bank on their landline 01-2610607 or 08023850372, in all fairness, they have a point. The things you asked for will be sent with or without Citizen Statements first thing on Thursday morning. On the EFCC issues, i had a meeting with Chiedu (Ibie) and Davidson and discussed with Mr. David (Edevbie, Delta State Commissioner of Finance) and Oga (James Ibori) extensively yesterday. Also Mr. Fowora (Segun Fowora of PRIMI LLC, Florida USA) called to give me some tips on dealing with the situation. At this point, we have all concluded that there is no point trying to hide a connection between the companies as these people already has most of the info. Some people seem to be of the impression that we were simply to careless (strange how people shift the blame when push comes to shove). The major problems we have (in my opinion), from Oga/efcc perspective) are:
• In Charter House and KOLN statements, there were some cash payments to Banke, Koln, Alcac, Harefe, Emma Okafor and Bola.
• Oga's ECONET bills were paid with Koln cheques establishing a link with Oga
• Payents were made from Charter House to Alcac. So if Alcac is called up, Alcac Platinum will be called up. If so, Bayprojects will be called up too.
• If they go looking for Koln and Harefe in NNB, this will lead to even more accounts be called up.
• There was a deposit into NNB Koln by Solo Odule sometime in July last year (I hear this is the kind of thing they are looking for).
• The fact that Chiedu and I are signatories to all these accounts just complicates things.
• Davidson says there is no use trying to sort out Charter House from Abuja as they already have the incorporation documents /information. They say it's the first thing they do.
• Also perhaps we should have restricted ourselves to paying just cash. The problem is all the people we have paid with cheques- Silhouette, Paulina, e.t.c. It might be a problem if they call up these accounts as the bills for Silhouette; Paulins are for Oga or places like Oghara (Ibori's Country Home) and other private locations. We don't know how these people will fare under pressure and I don't want to complicate things by briefing everyone.
I was in NNB for a few hours yesterday and I went back there today. Davidson and Chiedu think there is no point but I was able to get some things deleted from the statements and I will continue trying. Davidson says I should isolate and show him the areas I want him to please get out of the statements of Alcac before they ask for it. I will sort that out tomorrow. I am really not too impressed with attitude all of a sudden. While I have been busy trying to explain things away, they say my explanation should be that I was not the one who did it or was not around when it transpired. That bothers me. I am meeting Oga with all the bank statements tomorrow evening (Harefe, Alcac, Koln, Charter House and if he insists-Bayprojects) I will let you know how it goes.
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