Nigerian Government Still Struggling To Recover Laundered Abacha Funds

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

07 January 2002

The Nigerian government has revealed that it recently received around $146 million in funds embezzled from it and laundered through the international banking system by the late dictator, General Sani Abacha.

The Abacha family released the money in late December from a bank account in Luxembourg, Tunji Oseni, spokesman for current Nigerian President, Olusegan Obasanjo, said on Thursday.

However this sum- which the family was ordered to return by the British High Court of Justice last year- is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the amount still owing to the Nigerian authorities.

Although it is impossible to estimate exactly how much was drained from the country's coffers during the General's five year reign, British authorities say that they have found evidence to suggest around $1.3 billion was laundered through UK banks by the Abacha family and their associates.

Switzerland and Liechtenstein have similarly alarming tales to tell, with the former having frozen accounts containing around $670 million, and the latter announcing that it has found evidence of more than $100 million in stolen funds within its banking system.

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