The Times February 17, 2005

Swiss must repay £244m of dictator’s dirty money
By Jon Ashworth

IT SOUNDS like the ultimate Nigerian scam letter — only this time, it is genuine.

Swiss bankers have been ordered to repay $458 million (£244 million) siphoned off by the late Nigerian dictator, Sani Abacha. Dismissing an appeal by General Abacha’s family, Switzerland’s supreme court sided with a government decree ordering the restitution of funds frozen in Swiss banks.

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The figure adds to the $500 million already repatriated from Switzerland.

General Abacha died in 1998, aged 54. He is suspected of plundering more than $2 billion from the Nigerian central bank.

The Swiss decision means that the West African country has recovered more than $1 billion in Abacha funds. Jersey has returned $170 million. Nigeria has asked for help in tracing looted assets in the UK, America, Germany, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.

General Abacha amassed his fortune by awarding contracts to front companies, accepting huge bribes and siphoning money direct from the Nigerian treasury.

Nigeria is notorious for its so-called 419 mailshots — named for section 419 of Nigeria’s criminal code — in which recipients are offered a cut of untold millions sitting in a bank account.

Many of the letters purport to be from Marian Abacha, the general’s widow.

na wa oh

Please, anyone who has an idea of the amount recovered from abacha so far should, please, tell me