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METROPOLITAN POLICE TO RETURN £200,000 (419 MONEY) TO NIGERIA
THE MET POLICE'S Proceeds of Corruption Unit has succeeded in securing the return of nearly £200,000 pounds back to the Nigeria Government, following a successful confiscation hearing against a convicted money launderer.
Joyce Bamidele Oyebanjo [DOB 16.07.66 - 40yrs], a housing tenancy manager, from Teresa Gardens, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, was sentenced on 04.04.07, to three years imprisonment, at Southwark Crown Court, having been found guilty of money laundering £1.4m of money stolen from Nigerian State funds.
The completed hearing has resulted in a confiscation order of £198,045.00 Joyce Oyebanjo must pay the order by 04/06/2008 or she will receive 2.5 imprisonment in default, in addition to sentence she received for money laundering. The whole sum is to be paid to Federal Republic of Nigeria in compensation.
International Development Secretary Hilary Benn said: "This stolen money, originally meant for projects in Nigeria's Plateau State, including drinking water for villagers, was instead siphoned into private bank accounts. Its return to the people of Nigeria will send a clear message that the UK will prosecute those who launder the proceeds of corruption.
"The UK is also supporting the Government of Nigeria's work to prevent future corruption, including the arrest and impeachment of public figures, improving the transparency of what happens to oil revenues, and removing 'ghost workers' from the payroll."
Detective Sergeant Mark Radford, The Met's Proceeds of Corruption Unit said: "We are delighted that we will be able to return this money to the people of Nigeria. The Met police continue to work to target these people who fraudulently obtain money and are grateful for the continued co-operation and support of the Nigerian Authorities in these investigations."
BACKGROUND:
Oyebanjo was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Proceeds of Corruption Unit, which was specifically created to investigate the laundering of criminal funds in London by corrupt overseas officials.
The investigation began in January 2004 following the seizure of over £11,000 in cash from an address in Portland Street, London SE1. Officers had attended the address in connection with an alleged credit card fraud. The cash was found to have belonged to a man called Joshua Chibi Dariye, the former Nigerian State Governor of Plateau State.
Enquiries with the Nigerian Embassy in London established that it was a criminal offence in Nigeria for a serving State Governor to operate a foreign bank account; in addition to this all foreign assets should be declared to the Nigerian Government.
A joint investigation into Joshua Dariye was subsequently launched with the Nigerian State Security and later with their Economic Financial Crimes Commission. It was discovered that vast sums of Plateau State Government money had been diverted into Dariye's personal accounts, using the funds to purchase expensive property in London using false names.
Oyebanjo, who is the guardian of Dariye's children, used her numerous UK Bank accounts to launder the money he was siphoning off. Dariye's official legitimate earnings amounted to under £40,000 per annum and yet he accumulated assets worth millions of pounds, much of which had been destined for ecological work in Plateau State, such as providing drinking water to villages.
The Nigerian Authorities have instructed a firm of solicitors to recover Dariye's assets through the UK High Court using civil actions. In the civil case the rulings have led to property being sold and the value to be repaid to the Nigerian Government so far being recovered.
Joyce Oyebanjo is married and working in London. Dariye had made her the guardian of his two children who were being educated at a private boarding school in the UK. She was arrested by the MPS Proceeds of Corruption Unit on 21.07.04 and charged with money laundering on 15.04.05 and her assets restrained.
Dariye was arrested on 2.09.04 at a hotel in London in connection with the money laundering offences. £93,000 cash was recovered from his hotel rooms. This money was forfeited under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and is waiting repatriation to Nigeria. Dariye was bailed pending further enquiries and failed to answer his bail. He has never returned to the United Kingdom and is currently wanted in the UK.
ABOUT THE UNIT:
The MPS Proceeds of Corruption Unit is part funded by the Department for International Development through an anticorruption project overseen by Hilary Benn MP. The Unit has now restrained £34 million.
This money represents corrupt proceeds laundered through the UK's financial system. Where monies can be identified as having been stolen from a particular country, and those countries are often some of the poorest in the world, every effort will be made to return the looted assets.
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