EXCLUSIVE: Five international corruption cases linked to Atiku and his ex-wife

On 17 September, an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Arbitration Tribunal in Paris named Atiku Abubakar, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, in its final decision about suspicious dealings regarding the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project contract.

The tribunal mentioned Atiku, who was Nigeria’s vice president when the contract was awarded to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, in its findings on the stalled project expected to boost Nigeria’s electricity generation.

The tribunal found that Leno Adesanya, the promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, made a $500,000 payment on 30 January 2003, from the Swiss bank account of his offshore company, China Castle Investments Limited, to a US bank account belonging to Atiku’s former wife, Jennifer Douglas.

Atiku and Ms Douglas, who holds dual US-Nigerian citizenship, have long been linked to several suspicious international financial transactions, especially in the United States, where authorities flagged large sums transferred through offshore companies.

The former vice president and Ms Douglas officially married in 2003 and later divorced in June 2021.

Documents reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, including a report from the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, show that Ms Douglas opened over 30 US bank accounts in her name or in the names of the Jennifer Douglas Abubakar Family Trust, the Gede Foundation, and the American University of Nigeria (AUN).

The committee’s report released on 4 February 2010, showed that Ms Douglas lived in a luxury home in Potomac, Maryland, an affluent suburb of Washington, DC. It also found that she repeatedly told banks where she opened accounts that her husband, Atiku, transferred millions of dollars to her accounts through offshore companies.

These statements were made even though she listed her occupation variously as “student”, “homemaker” or “unemployed” in the account-opening documents.

In the Mambilla case, the tribunal found evidence of suspected payment to Ms Douglas in connection with the contract award while Sunrise Power’s promoter failed to prove otherwise.

The tribunal’s findings on the Mambilla contract are the latest and the fifth instance where Atiku and his former wife faced allegations of corruption or connections to suspicious financial transactions abroad.

People who know Atiku’s dealings claim that corruption allegations against him led to difficulties in getting US visas.

Reports suggest he could only obtain a US visa when running for elections. However, this newspaper has not been able to confirm the exact reasons for the visa refusals Atiku faced over the years.

Atiku worked in the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for about 20 years, retiring in 1989 as a deputy director. He then spent around a decade in the private sector before becoming vice president to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999. He held that position for eight years until May 2007.

The former president is often listed among Nigeria’s wealthiest individuals, which Atiku attributes to “wise investments, hard work and sheer luck of being at the right place at the right time.”

Before the Mambilla contract issue, Atiku had been named in other corruption cases.

PREMIUM TIMES revisits four other fraud or bribery-related allegations involving Nigeria’s former number two man, showing how he was accused of moving suspect funds into the United States through offshore companies and bank accounts linked to his former wife, as well as the evidence against him in those cases.

Siemens Bribery

The Siemens bribery scandal is another significant international corruption case involving Atiku, his former wife, a multinational corporation, and Nigerian government telecommunications contractors.

The scandal centered on allegations that Siemens, a German technology and engineering company, paid bribes to Nigerian officials to secure telecommunications contracts during Mr Obasanjo’s administration.

The allegations became public after the late Umaru Yar’Adua took over from Mr Obasanjo as president. In December 2007, the Yar’Adua administration stopped further dealings with Siemens amid international scrutiny of the company’s alleged bribery activities.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claimed that Siemens’ telecommunications subsidiary paid at least $4.5 million in bribes related to four Nigerian telecommunications contracts valued at about $130 million.

The payments were allegedly funneled through fake consultancy agreements and intermediaries, including a bank account linked to Jennifer Douglas, Atiku’s wife while he was vice president. The payments were reportedly made through different methods, including large cash withdrawals, with the money later sent to Nigeria in suitcases.

Of the alleged bribe payments tied to the four telecommunications projects, around $2.8 million was sent through a bank account in Potomac, Maryland, held in Ms Douglas’ name. She was still married to Mr Atiku at that time and was living in the US.

Ms Douglas reportedly represented a business consultant who entered into fake consultancy agreements with Siemens to provide “supply, installation, and commissioning” services, even though she did no actual work for the company.

According to US SEC documents reviewed by this newspaper, the agreements were used to facilitate bribe payments to Nigerian officials.

Other alleged corrupt payments included the purchase of watches worth around $172,000 for Nigerian officials listed in Siemens’ internal records as “P.” and “V.P.” These were believed to refer to Nigeria’s president and vice-president.

In November 2008, Siemens agreed to pay about $1.6 billion in penalties to US and German authorities over violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), after investigations into its bribery practices.

Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), later investigated the alleged bribes and in October 2010, filed charges against Siemens entities and individuals. But in November 2010, the federal government reached an out-of-court settlement with Siemens Nigeria. Under the agreement, Siemens reportedly paid around $46 million in damages, after which the government dropped the charges against it.

Jefferson bribery saga

US investigators also linked a bribery scandal involving former US Congressman William Jefferson to Nigeria, putting Atiku and some of his associates under scrutiny for alleged bribery activities.

The scandal, known as the Jefferson bribery scandal, involved Mr Jefferson, a US information technology company called iGate, and Netlink Digital Television (NDTV), a Nigerian telecommunications firm.

iGate wanted to grow its business in Africa, especially Nigeria. Vaernon Jackson, the company’s CEO at the time, approached Mr Jefferson for help in using his political position to influence the Nigerian government in favor of iGate’s business interests.

In 2006, Mr Jackson pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges before the US Department of Justice. US court documents revealed that he admitted iGate paid Mr Jefferson over $400,000 in exchange for his help in promoting the company’s interests in Nigeria.

Mr Jefferson, who represented Louisiana as a congressman, then got involved in the proposed deal and arranged a meeting between iGate representatives, Atiku, and some of his associates, including businessman Oyewole Fashawe. At the meeting, Mr Jefferson urged Nigerian officials and business interests to support iGate’s entry into the country. He also suggested a partnership between iGate and NDTV, where they would share revenue from their collaboration.

According to court records, Mr Jefferson discussed paying Atiku $100,000 in cash as a bribe to influence the partnership deal. He claimed to have delivered the money to the former vice president. However, during a search of Mr Jefferson’s home, FBI agents found $90,000 in marked cash, wrapped in aluminium foil and hidden in a freezer.

In June 2006, the US Department of Justice and the FBI asked Nigerian authorities for documents and information related to Atiku and others connected to Mr Jefferson’s business.

The request sought correspondence involving Atiku, Mr Jefferson, iGate, and NDTV, as well as information on relevant Nigerian agencies, companies, bank records, loans, and financial transactions.

This request led then-President, Mr Obasanjo, to ask the EFCC to investigate the claims.

During its investigation, the EFCC traced transactions connected to the proposed establishment of iGate and NDTV. They reportedly found that Atiku personally made an initial payment of ₦30 million to secure NDTV’s headquarters in Abuja through an account linked to another entity he was part of, Marine Float Limited.

The US investigation eventually led to criminal convictions. Mr Jefferson pleaded guilty to corruption charges and received a 13-year prison sentence in 2009. His sentence was later reduced to 12 years after an appeal. He was released in 2017 after serving about five years.

The PTDF funds

In 2006, a report by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) investigating the mismanagement of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) funds implicated Atiku.

Titled “The Report of the Special Audit/Forensic Investigation of Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) From 1999 to 31 May, 2006,” it said Atiku approved the release of $20 million from the treasury and placed it in Trans International Bank without proper approval from the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The report noted that this action was improper and amounted to an abuse of office.

The Commission looked into a request from the US Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice, on 22 June 2006, regarding transactions involving iGate, NDTV, and related persons.

The investigation later included the management and placement of PTDF funds under Atiku’s supervision as vice president.

It specifically examined the federal government’s approval of $125 million for PTDF purposes; the placement of significant portions of the funds with Equatorial Trust Bank and Trans International Bank; and a subsequent $20 million transaction.

It also looked into transactions involving NDTV, a former PTDF Executive Secretary, Yusuf Abubakar, and other notable Nigerians.

The forensic investigators pointed out that the PTDF under Atiku’s watch did not work on formal annual budgets and that no goals were set for each department or for the fund as a whole at the beginning of each year.

They said that spending was done as needed and without proper planning, noting that “Therefore, the Fund operated without adequate planning and control.”

According to the investigators, this could explain the overall mismanagement of the fund, due to its placement in fixed deposits with banks that had financial problems.

Wondering why, for example, the PTDF would place $30 million in 2003 in TIB, which was already facing cash flow issues, the investigators suggested that the “long-standing relationship between the VP (Atiku) and Otunba (Oyewole) Fasawe might have influenced the VP’s choice of TIB for the deposit” as he was “a prime and influential customer of TIB.”

The immediate transfer of additional funds to TIB, known for its not-so-great rating in the banking sector, might justify the allegation made by US Congressman, William J. Jefferson, that NDTV delayed the payment of a contract sum to iGate because they were expecting funds related to PTDF.

The investigators said despite TIB’s liquidity issues, it approved over N1.5 billion in loans to companies linked to Mr Fasawe, including MOFAS Shipping Co. Limited and NDTV, as well as another N300 million loan to Transvagagri Nigeria Limited, owned by Ahmed Vanderpuije, also a director of NDTV.

The forensic experts noted several large payments made from the MOFAS Account between July 2003 and July 2004.

“For instance, Alhaji Umar Pariya (Personal Assistant to VP Atiku) received over N104 million; PDP National Headquarters collected N100 million; Mr Bodunde received N17 million; Chief Lamidi Adedibu got N1 million, while Polony & Co. Ltd. received N90 million,” they said.

The report also stated that Atiku benefited from the account by N61 million, while his Marine Float Company received N250 million.

Soon after, former President Olusegun Obasanjo set up an Administrative Panel led by then Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Bayo Ojo, to look into the EFCC report.

The Bayo Ojo panel reported that Atiku approved the placement of PTDF funds in banks instead of using them for the projects for which they were meant, thus abusing his office.

Although others were also implicated, the panel recommended that the vice president should be held accountable for the $20 million transaction that occurred under his watch.

However, as a sitting vice president, Atiku could not be prosecuted due to the constitutional immunity provided under Section 308 of the Nigerian Constitution. Therefore, it was suggested that the matter be referred to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CBC).

Yet Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress (AC) for the 2007 election, criticized the Commission’s investigation as biased. He claimed the EFCC report and the Administrative Panel of Inquiry were politically motivated to stop his presidential ambition.

The Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation, in a statement signed by Garba Shehu, alleged that the federal government might have violated the law in handling the fund. He claimed that contrary to the enabling law, only $145 million of the $700 million earned in the 2002/2003 bidding rounds was remitted to the fund’s account.

He stated that this breached the PTDF law, which required that funds from oil block licensing rounds be paid into the fund’s account to train Nigerians in specialized fields.

Still, on 22 September 2006, the federal government filed an 18-count charge against the vice president and other implicated officials before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

Atiku then rushed to the Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge the CCT suit, arguing that he still had immunity, a claim the court upheld in December of that year.

In April 2007, the Court of Appeal confirmed, in an appeal filed by the Attorney General, that the CCT proceedings were criminal and could not continue against a sitting vice president.

The Senate also set up an ad hoc committee led by Victor Ndoma-Egba (Cross River Central), a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, to investigate the PTDF transactions. The committee found no direct evidence of personal enrichment but pointed to procedural and administrative failures.

The US Senate panel’s probe of suspicious financial transactions

A US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report linked Atiku and his ex-wife, Ms Douglas, to suspicious financial transactions involving over $40 million moving into the US between 2000 and 2008.

The report revealed that Atiku and Ms Douglas used a network of accounts at US financial institutions to transfer more than $40 million in suspect funds into the country through multiple wire transfers from offshore corporations based in Germany, Nigeria, Panama, the British Virgin Islands, and Switzerland.

Nearly $25 million of the funds went into over 30 US bank accounts opened in the names of Ms Douglas, the Jennifer Douglas Abubakar Family Trust, the Gede Foundation, and the American University of Nigeria (AUN).

Ms Douglas opened 18 of the accounts at Citibank, four at Chevy Chase Bank, six at Wachovia Bank, and three at Eagle Bank in Maryland, among other institutions.

According to the report, the four banks opened accounts for Ms Douglas in many cases without knowing she was a politically exposed person (PEP). Some relied on third-party vendors with incomplete PEP databases or had poor due diligence procedures.

As financial institutions began questioning offshore companies transferring funds into Ms Douglas’ accounts, they eventually shut them down. She then opened new accounts at other banks, sometimes with help from her US lawyer, Edward Weidenfeld.

The report also found that Mr Weidenfeld received $3.4 million from offshore entities to cover Atiku’s legal fees and fund an AUN account he opened at SunTrust Bank. Over five years, AUN received $14 million.

In every case, the report said, the banks, law firm, or university were informed that the funds came from Atiku.

US government placing Atiku, families under surveillance

A 2020 investigation by PREMIUM TIMES, as part of the global FinCEN Files investigation, revealed that transactions involving Atiku, his family, and companies linked to him faced heightened scrutiny by international banks.

The investigation was based on confidential Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed by banks with the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a US Treasury agency. The reports showed banks raised concerns about several transactions involving Atiku, his wives, and companies related to him.

One of the entities whose transactions raised suspicion was Guernsey Trust Company Nigeria Limited (GTCN), which held Atiku’s 16 percent interest in Intels Nigeria Limited. GTCN was set up in 2003 to manage assets related to a blind trust created after Atiku became vice president.

In March 2012, Habib Bank Limited New York (HBLNY) flagged a series of transactions involving GTCN. One included a $1,018.5 million transfer from GTCN to Tanjay Real Estate Brokers in Dubai to buy a property for Rukaiyatu Abubakar, one of Atiku’s wives. Another $200,000 transfer to Tanjay was flagged, along with another transaction involving about CHF741,000.

The bank’s scrutiny also included Amina Titi Abubakar, Atiku’s first wife and former second lady of Nigeria. Records showed GTCN transferred funds from Swiss accounts to London to cover her personal expenses.

After its review, HBLNY placed Atiku, Rukaiyatu, Amina Titi, GTCN, Tanjay, and other related individuals and entities into its internal system for real-time monitoring of potentially suspicious transactions.

The banking scrutiny linked back to concerns raised in the 2010 investigation by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. This inquiry looked into the movement of funds involving Atiku and his associates, identifying about $40 million linked to him. This included around $25 million transferred into more than 30 US bank accounts belonging to Ms Douglas, Atiku’s ex-wife.

The Senate investigation explored transfers involving GTCN and offshore companies, including LetsGo Ltd. Inc. and Sima Holding Ltd. Most transactions happened during Atiku’s time as Nigeria’s vice president when he was a politically exposed person and thus under greater scrutiny from financial institutions.

The scrutiny didn’t end with transactions involving his family. In 2017, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas filed a SAR about 27 transactions totaling $11.14 million connected to Intels Nigeria Limited. In the report, the bank noted Atiku’s link to Intels and cited previous negative information and investigations into allegations of fraud, corruption, and money laundering.

Atiku’s movement from the US to Dubai

When the US inquiry into his finances and those of his family became too much for Atiku, he sold his luxurious home in Potomac, Maryland, and moved to Dubai.

In March 2018, PREMIUM TIMES reported that the former vice president and his then-wife, Ms Douglas, sold the property for about $2.95 million. The seven-bedroom house, over 7,000 square feet, was bought by the couple in December 1999 for $1.75 million, before Atiku became Nigeria’s vice-president.

The property caught the attention of US investigators. In 2005, the FBI searched the mansion as part of an investigation involving former US Congressman William Jefferson. Jefferson was accused of taking bribes in connection with business dealings in Africa, including Nigeria. At that time, the FBI investigation focused more on Atiku’s financial and business relationships with people around him.

The sale of the mansion happened while Atiku struggled to get a US visa. In December 2017, he stated that his US visa application was still under administrative processing, although he denied avoiding the country.

The mansion was first listed for about $3.25 million in January 2018 before being sold through an online auction for about $2.95 million.

Atiku’s spokesperson, Paul Ibe, did not respond to calls and messages seeking comments for this report.

However, Mr Ibe previously denied that the sale was linked to the FBI investigation or any legal pressure. He stated the property was no longer serving its intended purpose and that the proceeds would be reinvested in businesses owned by the former vice president.