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A United States Senate report has accused Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice-President, of laundering over $40 million in suspicious funds into the United States between 2000 and 2008. And his partner in the lucrative effort was Jennifer Douglas, his fourth wife. Ms. Douglas is sometimes known as Lady Jamilah Jennifer, or Douglas E, or Jennifer Iwenjora, the name by which she was known in the 1980s when she was a reporter with the Nigeria Television Authority in Lagos. According to the report, which was written by the Senate Subcommittee on 
Investigations, most of the funds were through wire transfers sent by offshore corporations to U.S. bank accounts. Of the $40 million identified in the US investigation, $25 million was reportedly wire-transferred by offshore corporations into more than 30 U.S. bank accounts opened by Ms. Douglas, primarily by Guernsey Trust Company Nigeria Ltd., LetsGo Ltd. Inc., and Sima Holding Ltd. “In a 2008 civil complaint, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Ms. Douglas received over 
$2 million in bribe payments in 2001 and 2002, from Siemens AG, a major German corporation,” the report says. “While Ms. Douglas denies wrongdoing, Siemens has already pled (pleaded) guilty to U.S. criminal charges and settled civil charges related to bribery and told the Subcommittee that it sent the payments to one of her U.S. accounts.
As was widely expected, lawyers to James Ibori and his associates in the UK have now moved to strike out the money-laundering charges against associates of the former Delta State governor at the Southwark Crown Court in London. At the first mention t
oday, the judge handling the case gave directives for a full hearing scheduled for Monday and Tuesday next week, the 25th and 26th of January 2010. Ibori is asking the judge to quash the charges against his associates and wife because the case against him at the Federal High Court in Asaba has c
ollapsed, and the case in London should follow suit as a consequence. In detailed reports, Saharareporters had revealed how the former Chief Judge of Nigeria, Justice Abdullahi Mustapha, the attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Michael Aondokaa as well as a judge of the federal court of appeal, Justice Amina Adamu Augie colluded with Ibori to set up a high court in Asaba paid for by the Delta State government and staffed by Ibori. The judge in the case Justice Mercel Awokulehin was paid $5 million to quash the case. The course of the new motion tallies with the plan of Nigeria’s Atto
rney General, Aondoakaa and James Ibori, to frustrate all manners of criminal charges brought against Ibori in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. In recent months, Ibori had also h
ired a British Member of Parliament, Tony Baldry, a lawyer by profession but a politician and businessman with extensive business interests in Africa, to interfere in the case within the British judicial system. In September 2009, Mr. Baldry wrote scathing letters to the office of the Attorney General in the UK excoriating the office for engaging in the trail of Ibori and his associates in London, conveying the impression Ibori is being persecuted, not prosecuted.
Investigations, most of the funds were through wire transfers sent by offshore corporations to U.S. bank accounts. Of the $40 million identified in the US investigation, $25 million was reportedly wire-transferred by offshore corporations into more than 30 U.S. bank accounts opened by Ms. Douglas, primarily by Guernsey Trust Company Nigeria Ltd., LetsGo Ltd. Inc., and Sima Holding Ltd. “In a 2008 civil complaint, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Ms. Douglas received over 
$2 million in bribe payments in 2001 and 2002, from Siemens AG, a major German corporation,” the report says. “While Ms. Douglas denies wrongdoing, Siemens has already pled (pleaded) guilty to U.S. criminal charges and settled civil charges related to bribery and told the Subcommittee that it sent the payments to one of her U.S. accounts.
