Nothing last forever, no matter how smart you think
you are, if you are stealing to live large you'll be
exposed one day, in fact it could happen sooner
than you could ever imagine. Live right for your own
good.
Investigation by SR has revealed the ways in which
former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke
and her network of accomplices, family members,
and oil industry big boys sought to conceal and
launder an astonishing amount of her corruptly
acquired wealth. The laundered funds are the focus
of twin investigations by British and Nigerian anti-
corruption agencies.
There is now a detailed intelligence documents and
briefing on financial information regarding
Diezani’s extensive acts of corruption and money
laundering. Details below:
Sahara Reporters investigation also involved
interviews with individuals in possession of highly
sensitive information about the illicit flow of funds
to the former minister’s front companies and
individuals.
An intelligence analyst with intimate knowledge of
the embattled ex-minister’s family and business
network told SaharaReporters that UK investigators
were focusing on several real estate properties in
the United Kingdom. The source added that “[Diezani
Alison-Madueke] was most likely aware that the
Crown Prosecution [in the UK] was investigating her
properties going back as early as 2013.”
SaharaReporters learned that British prosecutors
decided to be low-key about their investigation of
Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s suspicious ownership of real
estate assets in the UK because the UK Foreign
Office and security establishment did not want to
unsettle UK-Nigerian ties by going after the former
minister during the administration of former
President Goodluck Jonathan.
Sources in the Nigerian government and law
enforcement told SaharaReporters that the National
Crime Agency (NCA), which arrested Mrs. Alison-
Madueke and four other suspects last Friday, did so
unilaterally and without the cooperation of the
EFCC. However, once the EFCC read media reports
about Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s arrest, their agents
moved swiftly to search her residences in Abuja and
elsewhere in Nigeria. The EFCC’s action led to media
reports, now established to be misleading, that UK
and Nigerian authorities were coordinating their
investigations of the former minister.
Mrs. Alison-Madueke was the most powerful minister
in the Jonathan administration, and had long been
linked to shady deals and policies in Nigeria’s oil
sector. She fled Nigeria in May, days before the
official end of her tenure as Minister of Petroleum
and the inauguration of President Muhammadu
Buhari’s administration.
Earlier in May, SaharaReporters reported that Mrs.
Alison-Madueke booked herself a seat on the same
flight in which then President-elect Buhari was
traveling to London, and made awkward attempts to
strike up a conversation with Mr. Buhari. A source
on the flight told SaharaReporters that Mr. Buhari
quietly ignored the former minister during the
flight.
A Nigerian who met Diezani in UK said the ex-
minister claimed she was receiving medical
treatment.
How Alison-Madueke Looted Nigeria As Oil Minister
Two of our sources said that the former Petroleum
Minister acquired an astonishing sum of looted
funds through shady dealings that included theft
of kerosene subsidy payments, manipulation of fuel
subsidy payments, so-called swap deals in which she
used a number of personal and corporate fronts to
sell Nigerian crude oil that was meant to be refined
and brought back for local consumption, fraudulent
acquisition of marginal oil fields and allocation of
other lucrative oil field to fronts.
Our sources disclosed that Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s
most daring fraudulent deals were her strategic
partnership agreements with two respective
companies officially owned by her most notorious
fronts, Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko . The
agreements were worth over $6 billion, according to
one source. He added that another avenue of money
laundering by the former minister was the
controversial Malabu deal in which she, former
Attorney General, Mohammed Adoke, and President
Goodluck Jonathan may have pocketed close to $2
billion between them.
Our financial intelligence source said Mrs. Alison-
Madueke was able to get away with her deals and
schemes in the oil industry because she was “one of
[former President] Jonathan’s money managers.”
The same source pointed out that the Jonathan
administration had designed the Petroleum Industry
Bill (PIB) to give Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Alison-
Madueke “sweeping discretionary powers to award
contracts, licenses, and leases for the Nigerian
petroleum industry.”
Accomplices and Companies in Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s
Orbit
SaharaReporters learned that several key individuals
helped the former minister to hide her loot. Two
separate intelligence reports identified one Donald
Chidi Amamgbo as a key figure in Mrs. Alison-
Madueke’s money laundering activities. Mr. Omokore,
Mr. Aluko and Walter Wagbatsoma were also named
as close collaborators in the former minister’s
suspicious web of financial activities.
Mr. Aluko, who went to near-anonymity to become a
flashy, high-flying and yacht-owning
“entrepreneur,” was identified as a “money-
launderer” for Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Alison-
Madueke. Our source claimed that Mr. Aluko recently
bought several real estate properties in Los Angeles
and New York ranging between $8 million and $23
million. Recently, rap mogul, Jay Z, and his wife,
Beyoncé, spent their vacation on a $50 million yacht
owned by Mr. Aluko.
According to our source, Mr. Aluko’s flamboyant
lifestyle led Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Alison-
Madueke to decide to use more discreet fronts.
Besides, the source added, Mr. Aluko also fell out
with the former Petroleum Minister Diezani when he
absconded with funds he was supposed to have
laundered for her and the former president.
Mr. Aluko’s Atlantic Energy, formerly known as
Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited (AEDCNL),
was one of the major corporate entities used to
stash away the former minister’s looted funds. Mr.
Aluko established the company in Zug, Switzerland,
along with Nigerian national Temidayo Adeoye
Okusame and British national Oscar Seda Mbeche.
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