The US Government has transferred $311,797,876.11 to the government of Nigeria in accordance with a recent agreement between the two governments and the Bailiwick of Jersey to repatriate assets that the Americans forfeited that were traceable to the kleptocracy of former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha (pictured).

In 2014, Judge John Bates of the District of Columbia in the USA signed a judgment forfeiting approximately $500 million located in accounts around the world, as the result of a civil forfeiture complaint that the US Government made against a slightly larger sum. After appeals in the United States were exhausted in 2018, the Government of Jersey enforced the US judgment against the funds located on the island.

The forfeited assets represent corrupt monies laundered during and after the military regime of General Abacha (ruled 1993-8), whose Government salary was US$20,000 per annum and who died in bed with a girl on either side of him. He, his son Mohammed Sani Abacha, their associate Abubakar Atiku Bagudu and others allegedly embezzled, misappropriated and extorted billions from the government of Nigeria and others, then laundered their criminal proceeds through US private banks and the purchase of bonds backed by the United States. Jersey’s co-operation in the investigation, restraint and enforcement of the US judgment was vital. The three-way agreement, signed in February, resulted in the US and Jersey transfer 100% of the net forfeited assets to Nigeria.

The agreement includes measures to "ensure transparency and accountability," including the administration of the funds and the projects in Nigeria on which they are to be spent, financial review by an "independent" auditor and monitoring by an "independent civil society organisation with expertise in engineering and other areas." The agreement also precludes the expenditure of any of the funds to benefit alleged perpetrators of the corruption or to pay contingency fees for their lawyers. The agreement is based on principles for the disposal of recovered assets laid down at the Global Forum on Asset Recovery (GFAR) in December 2017 in Washington DC, which the United States and the United Kingdom hosted with support from the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative of the World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.  

The US Government (which has long made heroic attempts to recover assets for the benefit of countries stricken by corruption) is still on the trail of $30 million located in the UK and over $144 million in France. It is seeking forfeiture of more than $177 million in other laundered funds held in trusts that name Abacha's associate Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, the current governor of Kebbi State in Nigeria, and his relatives as beneficiaries.