Associate of late Nigerian dictator fined for money laundering

The justice authorities in Geneva have handed down a SFr1 million fine to a businessman who helped the former Nigerian dictator, Sani Abacha, to divert public funds from Nigeria into Swiss bank accounts.

The Nigerian entrepreneur admitted aiding the transfer of SFr108 million into the accounts.

The money has already been handed back to the Nigerian government. He showed willingness to co-operate with the police and was therefore spared a prison sentence, Swiss authorities said.

The federal police also announced late on Monday they had frozen more accounts held at three banks in Geneva and Zurich, as part of the money-laundering probe into the illegal diversion of Nigerian government funds.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that new funds had been frozen “following a demand by the Nigerian government”, but was not able to reveal the amount involved.

However, an estimated SFr1 billion still remain frozen in Switzerland.

The largest amount of money transferred by Abacha and his henchmen to Switzerland was found at the Credit Suisse where SFr382 million were recovered. According to the current Nigerian president, the total sum allegedly stolen by Abacha was over $3 billion.

Swiss lawyer, Yves Klein, who is acting on behalf of the Nigerian government said there were more assets waiting to be uncovered in Switzerland. “We just found out that several tens of millions of dollars were invested by the Abacha family in Swiss life insurance policies.”

Klein also accused some of the Swiss bankers of “acting in an incautious and greedy way”.

swissinfo with agencies