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Again, Another Abacha’s £211m Loot Seized

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Just In: Again, Another Abacha's £211m Loot Seized
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The sum of £211,000,000 (N81.9bn) laundered by former Nigerian dictator, General Sani Abacha, has been seized from a bank in Jersey, Channels Islands by a British court.

A report monitored on UK Metro by Naija News, says the money was put in accounts held in Jersey by Doraville Properties Corporation, a British Virgin Islands company.

The Newspaper noted that the government is holding on to the money until authorities in Jersey, the United States and Nigeria come to an agreement on how it should be distributed.

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This online news platform understands that any money that Jersey does keep will be put into the Criminal Confiscation Fund, which is used to pay for a variety of projects.

The fund had been used for the new police station and developments at La Moye Prison in the past.

It is believed that even more money held by Doraville is likely to be seized and paid into the Civil Asset Recovery Fund in the future.

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Island’s Attorney General, at the request of the US authorities in 2014, applied for, and the Royal Court granted, a restraining order over the Jersey bank account balance of Doraville.

It was learned that the purpose of the restraining order was to preserve the money until a final civil asset recovery order could be registered in the Royal Court.

Similarly, Doraville applied to the Royal Court for the restraint order to be discharged, but the Royal Court dismissed the application in 2016.

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Doraville challenged the Royal Court’s decision, taking the case to Jersey’s Court of Appeal in 2017 but the challenge was again rejected.

However, Doraville made an application to appeal against the restraint order before the Privy Council – Jersey’s ultimate appellate court. The development came after the decision of Jersey’s Court of Appeal,

On the other hand, the Privy Council announced its rejection of this final legal challenge in February 2018.

Last week, Mark Temple, a Solicitor General gave a presentation in Vienna Austria, about Doraville at a United Nations (UN) conference on corruption.

“The conference of the States Parties to the United Nations convention against corruption is an important international forum concerned with anti-corruption measures and asset returns.

“The conference was a good opportunity to demonstrate progress with the Doraville case, as well as Jersey’s determination to deal with international financial crime more generally,” he said.

Meanwhile, Naija News understands that Abacha was a Nigerian army officer and de facto president between 1993 until his death in 1998.