Court grants Nigeria’s bid to summon 10 banks over $9.6bn arbitral claim

New York federal Judge, Lorna Schofield, has ruled that Nigeria can subpoena 10 banks for information needed to prosecute government officials allegedly connected to a British Virgin Island engineering firm’s alleged bribery scheme and subsequent $9.6 billion arbitral claim.

A latest report in legal websitelaw360.com, showed that District Judge Schofield, who gave the ruling, ordered companies involved to allow the Nigerian government have access to sundry account billion details of officials listed in its subpoena request.

The move, the judge ruled, would enable the Nigerian government prove its claim that the $9.6 arbitration was obtained by Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) by fraud.

The filings were done by Alexander Pencu, a partner of Meister Seelig & Fein LLP, attorneys for the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice of Nigeria.

The banks are; “Citibank, N.A. (“Citibank”), Allied Irish Banks plc (“Allied Irish”), HSBC Bank USA (“HSBC”), Standard New York, Inc. (“Standard New York”), Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Americas (“Deutsche Bank”), J.P. Morgan Chase (“JPMorgan”) Bank of Cyprus, Fortis Private Banking Singapore Limited (“Fortis”), United Bank for Africa and Standard Chartered International (USA) Ltd. (‘Standard Chartered”).

Before now, Nigeria had asked the federal court in New York for permission to subpoena information about transactions involving government officials. The politicians were in office when the state signed a contract with Process & Industrial Developments Ltd., and later became involved in a costly dispute with the company.

Among the politically-exposed persons named in the subpoena are a former oil minister who is now late, Rilwanu Lukman; President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience Faka Jonathan; Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former petroleum minister during the tenure of Mr Jonathan; and Allison Amaechina Madueke.

Others named in the subpoena are Taofiq Tijani; Grace Taiga; Mohammad Kuchazi; one Michael Quinn, who died in 2014; James Nolan; Adam Quinn; and Ibrahim Dikko.

Also listed is former attorney general and minister of justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke. The request includes “all documents concerning any transactions to, from, or for the benefit of” the aforementioned individuals and companies.

It would be recalled that in the fourth quarter of 2019 (Q4) the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, arraigned two British nationals, James Richard Nolan and Adam Quinn (at large), before Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, for their alleged complicity in the controversial $9.6bn arbitral award to Process and Industrial Development Limited by a United Kingdom commercial court.

The defendants, both directors of Goidel Resources Limited, a Designated Non-Financial Institution (DNFI) and ICIL Limited, were docked on a 16 count- charge bordering on money laundering.

Count one of the charges read: “That you James Richard Nolan and Adam Quinn(at large), sometime in December 2013 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, being Directors of Goidel Resources Limited, a Designated Non-Financial Institution (“DNFI”) aided the said Company in failing to comply in the requirement of submitting to the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investments a declaration of the activities as specified under Section 5 (1)(a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011 as amended and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 16 (2b) of the same Act”.