How U.S. Court Ordered FBI To Seize $1 Million Stolen By Former Enugu Governor, Chimaroke Nnamani In Last Days In Office–Report

Agency Report

The FBI stated this in a forfeiture proceeding in court documents which were obtained by Peoples Gazette.

A U.S. court ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation to seize about $1 million stolen by Nigerian Senator, Chimaroke Nnamani as part of the funds he allegedly laundered days before leaving office as Enugu governor in 2007.

The FBI stated this in a forfeiture proceeding in court documents which were obtained by Peoples Gazette.

Nnamani was alleged to have stolen the funds from Enugu state coffers and used proxies to wire-transfer them from Nigerian banks to bank accounts he fraudulently opened with AmSouth Bank in Orlando, Florida, the forfeiture affidavits submitted by special agents of the FBI had read.

The previously unreported fraud cases were instituted against him before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama barely days after he left office in May 2007 and wound up two years later in May 2009.

The FBI said Nnamani, who was elected governor and sworn in as Nigeria returned to civil rule in May 1999, started looting Enugu treasury by the early aughts. Although the FBI and Nigerian anti-graft office EFCC seized property and cash assets laundered by Mr Nnamani in separate proceedings in the U.S. and Nigeria, respectively, both law enforcement authorities said they have yet to determine how much the Nigerian politician actually plundered from his state while its residents languished in poverty.

account for the acquisition of the defendant funds. Additional investigation has failed to identify a legitimate source of income for Chinero Nwigwe to account for the transfer of funds alleged herein.”

“The defendant funds held on deposit in the twenty named bank accounts are the subjects of, or otherwise were involved in numerous financial transactions conducted by, or at the direction of Chimaroke Nnamani for the purpose of concealing or disguising the nature, the location, the source, the ownership or the control of the proceeds of “specified unlawful activity” in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)1(1).

“Therefore, the defendant funds are subject to forfeiture to the United States of America pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(A),” the FBI further stated in its affidavit.

When it became apparent that the Nigerian politician’s legitimate earnings could not account for the millions of dollars in his possession after a drawn forfeiture proceeding that spanned about two years, Judge William Acker issued a consolidated ruling ordering the seizure of the illicit funds as well as forfeitures of Mr Nnamani’s assets to the U.S. government on May 13, 2009.