Third person named in $1.7bn Diezani scandal

Court documents filed in Houston by the US Justice Department in the assets forfeiture proceedings filed against Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke and Messrs. Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore have revealed the third man in the $1.7billion swindle of Nigeria.

He is Igho Sanomi, who owns the Taleveras Oil Group. Taleveras, along with oil traders Arcadia and Glencore, were found to have paid $1.2 billion into Kola Aluko’s account in Switzerland, proceeds from crude oil lifted from Aluko and Omokore’s company.

This money, the US Justice Department contends, was used to fund Diezani’s luxury lifestyle. But in a statement Wednesday, Taleveras said its involvement in the alleged dubious transactions followed best international practices, as a third party.

“This legal case is not against Taleveras or Igho Sanomi.

“As it relates to the US department case against Atlantic Drilling, please note that Taleveras and the other two major oil trading houses (Glencore and Arcadia) were not faulted for embarking on a legitimate transaction, as all payments were made based on legitimate third party contracts with private companies and not NNPC,” the company said.

Deziani, as oil minister between 2010 and 2015, used her influence to facilitate inappropriate business opportunities for Aluko and Omokore by assigning to their companies, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts (AEDC) Limited and Atlantic Energy Brass Development (AEBD) Limited; eight oil mining leases (OMLs).

Court papers show that Taleveras Group, one of the third-party oil trading companies, paid copious sums into Aluko’s personal accounts.

The stream of payments, prosecutors observed, began shortly after the award of the Forcados SAAs. Over a period of six months, Aluko received the sum of $15million in his personal account domiciled at LGT Bank (Schweiz) AG in Switzerland (the “LGT -090038 Account”), from which various purchases for Diezani were funded. The money came from Taleveras Group and its affiliates, including Taleveras Trading Limited and Taleveras Petroleum Trading BV. (NAN)