In Closing Statement, UK Prosecutors Make Case Against Theresa Ibori, Husband, Gohil, And Governor Uduaghan


Posted: November 6, 2010 - 06:23

By SaharaReporters, New York
UK prosecutors trying former Delta State First Lady Theresa Nkoyo Ibori today painted a detailed portrait of Mrs. Ibori’s extensive role in her husband’s looting of public funds. The prosecutors also implicated current Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan in the multiple fraudulent deals through which Mr. Ibori looted the treasury.

Mr. Uduaghan is Ibori’s cousin and handpicked successor.

Today’s closing statement was also a preview of the case that UK prosecutors are likely to make if they succeed in getting Mr. Ibori extradited to the UK from Dubai. Ibori recently appealed a ruling by a judge in Dubai that he should be sent to the UK to face money-laundering charges.

Lead prosecutor Sasha Wass, QC told the jury that Mrs. Ibori paid £2.2 million pounds in cash for a swanky home in Hampstead less than two years after her husband’s inauguration as governor. Ms. Wass, QC told the jury that not only did former Governor James Ibori obtain the house by fraudulent means but also that Mrs. Ibori was aware of it since her husband put her in charge of the transaction.

The Crown prosecutors described the fraudulent acquisition of the Hampstead property as the beginning of Mrs. Ibori’s rise to extreme wealth.

Ms. Wass asked the jury to consider the Iboris’ criminal record, including their conviction in the UK for petty theft a few years before Mr. Ibori maneuvered his way into the governor’s mansion in Asaba. Prosecutors also laid out how US authorities investigated Ibori’s million-dollar deposit in a US bank in 1994. She told the jury that US law enforcement agents concluded that Ibori lied when he claimed to have received the funds for consultancy work. As Saharareporters detailed earlier, Mr. Ibori forfeited $400,000 out of the $1 million to the US government.

A legal analyst in court told Saharareporters that the prosecution “did a superb job of portraying Mr. and Mrs. Ibori as a tag-team criminal partnership.” He added, “Money is seized in the US only when there’s probable cause –or what UK law calls reasonable suspicion.”

UK prosecutors told the jury today that Ibori only had to provide evidence of the legitimacy of the funds, but he opted to part with a huge chunk of it in order to settle the case. Ms. Wass stated that the transaction marked Ibori’s entrance into the criminal big leagues. She also observed that, contrary to Mrs. Ibori’s attempt to deny knowledge of Ibori’s criminal activity, the former First Lady was fully aware of her husband’s illicit financial deals in the US as well as the UK.

Ms. Wass reminded the jury that Mrs. Ibori went along with her husband’s decision to falsify his date of birth in order to conceal his criminal past and convictions in the UK. Under cross-examination, Theresa Ibori had acknowledged that she found her husband’s action to be wrong, but said it was against the tradition in her adopted culture to challenge him. However, Ms. Wass reminded the jury that Mrs. Ibori had indeed challenged her husband on other issues.

Prosecutors revealed how Mr. Ibori made misleading declarations of his assets. He did not declare his foreign bank accounts. In 1999 he only declared his homes in Nigeria as well as a flat in Abbey Road, St Johns Wood area in London. For cash in bank, he declared a debt of more than N1 million while cash in hand was about N400, 000 thousand. In 2007, Mr. Ibori declared another house in London, but fraudulently understated its value. Even though the house was worth £3 million, Ibori declared it as worth £300,000.

Prosecutors accused the former governor, with his wife’s knowledge, of systematically misstating the value of his property. They also told the jury that, by 2007, Mr. Ibori had added three more properties in the UK as well as homes in Texas and South Africa. He also had established a series of off shores trust funds in safe haven islands for himself, his wife and children. Yet, in his assets declaration form in Nigeria, when he was asked to indicate cash abroad, he entered “non-applicable.”

Ms. Wass revealed how Mr. Ibori established several companies, including MER Engineering, and used them as fronts to award contracts to himself. Ibori’s companies also received contracts and revenues from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.

By 2007, Ibori’s wealth had become astonishing, said UK prosecutors. They pointed to the testimony of the EFCC’s 

Yahaya Bello that Ibori’s mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo (nee Onuigbo), set up three front companies that tendered for and received numerous contracts during Ibori’s tenure as governor. Ms. Wass stated that the three companies belonging to the same person tendered for and competed for the same contract. The arrangement ensured that Ibori’s concubine – who was fronting for him – got the contract.

Investigators accused Emmanuel Uduaghan, who prior to 2007 served as secretary to the state government (SSG), of facilitating the illicit deals. Most of the contracts that went to one of Ibori’s front companies –Sagicom, Rivbed or Sigares – were heavily over-inflated. Prosecutors revealed that most of the contracts were for N1.8 billion or above, including for the supply of fine wine and beverages.

Ms. Wass disclosed that Ms. Okoronkwo was responsible for transferring the proceeds out of Nigeria where the funds were invested for Ibori. Ms. Okoronkwo was also often used as a conduit to pay for Ibori’s properties in the UK. It was revealed that, by the end of 2003, Okoronkwo had deposited more than £3 million   in the trust fund that was meant to benefit Theresa, her children and Mr. Ibori. Sagicom was the corporate vehicle Okoronkwo used to channel the funds.

Prosecutors showed that Ms. Okoronkwo engaged in forgery of documents on her computer that Mr. Ibori then signed. The forged documents were meant to deceive bankers in the UK as well as safe havens around the world. Ms. Wass said that Okoronkwo worked for both James and Theresa Ibori, dismissing Mrs. Ibori’s suggestion that she and Udoamaka were fighting over Mr. Ibori. Instead, according to Ms. Wass, the two women helped the same man to siphon money that belonged to the people of Delta State and Nigeria.

On a day filled with legal drama, including defense protests that the prosecution had unfairly tarred Mrs. Ibori by tying her to the convicted Udoamaka Okoronkwo, prosecutors also pressed their case against Ibori’s attorney, Bhadresh Gohil. Mr. Gohil, who decided not to testify after observing the methodical way the prosecution dismantled Mrs. Ibori during cross-examination, was described as Mr. Ibori’s launderer-in-chief.

Our legal analyst said that prosecutors had done “a forensic job on Mr. Gohil, showing him as a man who hid evidence in chimneys.” He added that Mr. Gohil, described as “smooth talking and highly educated,” “betrayed the depth of his fear when he refused to take the stand.” The Crown prosecutors went to town, depicting him as a coward who could not face up to his deeds.

Mr. Gohil maintained a posh office in the West end area of London. Even though Mrs. Theresa Ibori had alleged that the documents found with Gohil were forged, Mr. Gohil seemed scared to take the stand and contradict her. “I don’t believe Mr. Gohil has any answers to the charges,” said a lawyer familiar with the case. “None of his defense would have withstood the blistering attack of the well-prepared prosecutors,” he added.

Prosecutors portrayed Gohil as one who had betrayed his oath to protect the law. They accused him of maintaining a manual on how to launder money without being detected, adding that he used the “money launderers’ spread sheet” to help unconscionable looters like Ibori – in direct contraventions of rule 15 of the UK solicitors procedure. Mr. Gohil is accused of lying to banks, police, and courts. He reportedly created secret safes to hide funds and documents, making him the perfect partner-in-crime for the Iboris.

The prosecution is likely to conclude its closing remarks next week Tuesday. Afterwards, Mrs. Ibori’s court-appointed legal aid lawyer as well as Mr. Gohil’s lawyer, Ian Winters, QC, will give their own closing statements. Judge Hardy is expected to sum up the case next week and the jury might begin deliberations on the case on Monday November 15th.


http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/closing-statement-uk-prosecutors-make-case-against-theresa-ibori-husband-gohil-and-governo

See all the overwhelming evidence against Ibori, yet that overhyped fellow Nuhu Ribadu could do nothing.
And to think this Ribadu wants to run for President on the back of being an 'anti-corruption czar'. Rubbish.

God Bless Great Britian

An article i read a few days ago reported that Mrs Ibori was crying in court.
Amongst other porkies she told she said she's not had anything to do with Ibori since 2003. . . . LOL

Well, Mrs Ibori, lets see you wriggle your way out of these allegations.

texazzpete:

See all the overwhelming evidence against Ibori,

UK are good on clamping down on criminals if they want to.

A guy I knew once was doing shaddy stuff and what not for years, when they clamped on him too, he lost everything! He lost everything he obtained fraudulently etc.

This same guy tried to fake his own death in the UK, and left for some EU country needless to say he was arrested and swiftly brought back to the UK. He is in jail now.


It will be interesting to see how Ibori's lawyers will argue his way out or looking to limit his time in jail.

There is no way they can. Accomplices have already been jailed for long terms, Nkoyo is Next, the Ogidigbodigbo is off to wornwood scrubs or Belmash