Sani Abacha's £210m seized from Jersey account

More than $267m (£210m) belonging to a former Nigerian dictator has been seized from a Jersey bank account.

The money was "derived through corruption" during the presidency of Sani Abacha in the 1990s, according to Jersey's Civil Asset Recovery Fund .
A shell company called Doraville held the funds, which were frozen in 2014. After a five-year legal wrangle, the money has now been recovered and will be split between Jersey, the United States and Nigeria. Jersey's attorney general, Robert McRae QC, said the seizure "demonstrated [Jersey's] commitment to tackling international financial crime and money laundering".
Mr Abacha was in power from 1993 until his death in 1998. It is not yet clear how much money will be kept by each government. Jersey's Law Officers Department declined to comment on the final distribution of the funds because it could "prejudice ongoing discussions". Swiss authorities last year returned $300m (£228m) to the Nigerian government, after it was found to have been stolen from public funds. That money is being paid back to 300,000 Nigerian households over the next six years.






Culled From BBC.