Govt, Abacha family sign pact on loot recovery

Thursday, April 18, 2002.

NIGERIA is to soon take possession of the over $1 billion loot traced to the family of the late General Sani Abacha, Swiss authorities said yesterday. Swiss banks will be ordered to return $535million under an out-of-court settlement between the Nigerian government and the family, the Swiss Federal Justice Department said in a statement. Under the deal, a total of around $1billion will be transferred to Nigeria from banks around the world. In return, the country will drop criminal proceedings against members of the former leader's family, the statement added. It is, however, not clear if the agreement included dropping murder charges against the former ruler's son, Mohammed, who is standing trial alongside some other persons for alleged complicity in several state-organised crimes. General Abacha, who died in 1998, was accused of stealing some $3 billion from state funds. Under the settlement plan, his family will be allowed to keep $100 million of the disputed cash. These funds were acquired before General Abacha began his five-year rule in 1998 and "demonstrably do not derive from criminal acts", the statement said. Nigeria asked Switzerland in 1999 to help uncover the financial network it suspected that the late ruler had established. In response, the Swiss authorities froze around $670 million in bank accounts belonging to the former ruler, his son Mohammed, widow Mariam and other relatives. Suspicious money was also discovered in Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Jersey while Britain has found traces of around $1.3 billion thought to have been handled by domestic banks for the family and its friends. The Swiss ministry said that the funds to be repaid - currently frozen in various bank accounts abroad - would be transferred to the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, a commercial and industrial city in Switzerland. In July last year, Swiss authorities returned a first instalment of $64 million of an estimated $600 million hidden in the country during Abacha's five-year rule. Accounts in Britain and Luxembourg are also under investigation.