TRACKING >British prosecutors have launched a new legal attempt to seize part of $153 million stolen by a former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori.
Restarting the process at Southwark Crown Court yesterday, prosecution counsel, Jonathan Kinnear, began listing assets that Britain seeks to confiscate from Ibori and return to Nigerian public funds, Reuters reported.
He said the total value of the known proceeds of his crimes came to 117 million pounds ($153 million).
Kinnear, however, noted that only a portion of that sum is likely to be recoverable.
Ibori, who was governor from 1999 to 2007 had pleaded guilty to 10-count charges of laundering of state funds in Britain and had received a 13-year jail sentence of which he served in pre- and post-trial detention.
Although he was released from jail in December 2016 and is now back in Nigeria, it seems he might lose everything to the United Kingdom and the Nigerian government.
Earlier in 2013, a first attempt was made in Britain to confiscate his assets; however, it was aborted weeks later due to unresolved legal disputes.
As a governor in the oil-rich state, Ibori, 57, amassed a portfolio of luxury properties in Nigeria, London, Washington, Houston, and Johannesburg.
Britain’s National Crime Agency estimates that around 1 billion pounds moves into or through the United Kingdom every year. Ibori is one of the only ultimate beneficiaries of such practices to have been convicted.
