This telephone call was after several unanswered calls from Adoke and others in true government.
At the London Royal Court of Justice, Business and Property last Tuesday where the Ex-Marketing officer for J P Morgan Chase Bank, Bayo Osolake, was cross-examined by Mr. Maserfield QC, the counsel for the Nigerian government in the civil action instituted by the Nigerian Government against JP Morgan Chase.
The action was instituted over the improper payment of $801 million from the OPL245 license sale to Dan Etete, a former Minister of Petroleum and others.
The QC confronted the witness with several emails and correspondences between the bank and the Nigerian government in support of the allegation of negligence on the part of the bank in transferring $801 million to a company in which Mr. Etete, a man already convicted for money laundering in France was a beneficiary.
From all the evidence presented and responses of the bank official who also served as the liaison officer between officials of the Nigerian government and JP Morgan, the bank failed to conduct its ‘Know Your Customer’ check on Malabu before the fund was transferred to the company.
Mr. Osolake established that the bank saw the red flag when it attempted to transfer $1.1 billion to Lugano in Switzerland and it was returned to the bank on the basis of Anti-Money Laundering concerns. While the internal process of resolving the challenges was in progress, on June 20, 2011, Mr. Bello Adoke called Osolake using his mobile phone and was “frustrated and shouting”.
According to the witness, “it was a different person from the Mr. Adoke I have had phone conversations with before then”.
This telephone call was after several unanswered calls from Adoke and others in true government.
“I had to refuse answering my phone due to the pressure of calls,” the witness added.
Among several other revelations and affirmations, contrary to claims by Adoke that he never transacted business while out of office between May 29 and July 3 2011, the officer confirmed Adoke called him to exert pressure for payment of money to Etete.