₦airaland Forum

[size=15pt]Strive Masiyiwa
It’s time to play by a different (ethical) set of rules (Part 10) Nigeria 4[/size]

__Witness for the people of Africa.

Corruption often involves very sophisticated bankers and lawyers in Western financial centers. When corruption happens in Nigeria, or any other African country, it usually also happens at the same time with at least one accomplice on the other side of the world, whether in London, Geneva, or the like.

The London lawyer Bhadresh Gohil, who I wrote about in my last post, is just one of scores of international advisors who handle the sophisticated movement of money in the world, in this case the money stolen from the Nigerian people and hidden in overseas bank accounts.

___When you choose financial or legal advisors, choose very wisely. Your very life could depend on it.

When Mr Gohil and other family and associates of Delta State governor James Ibori were arrested in London, I was asked by the British government to be a state witness in their trial. I agreed without hesitation.

Being a witness in such a case is not easy. It meant that I had to stop working for several weeks and just focus on preparation to give evidence. I knew I would be grilled in an open court by expensive defense lawyers who would try to challenge my integrity.

I was told that many potential witnesses had declined to give evidence in open court out of fear.

Not me!

I headed to England as a "Witness to Her Majesty's Government." For me personally, I went as a "witness on behalf of the people of Nigeria and Africa." It was my duty.

A witness can help ensure justice is done. Solid evidence is crucial in ensuring the truth is heard and that the rule of law is upheld. Without witness testimony, criminals can operate with impunity, one of the greatest threats to Africa’s future.

What is impunity? It basically means evil actions have no legal consequences. As a result, criminals are allowed to stay busy committing their crimes, knowing they can get away with it without punishment.

___A culture of impunity endangers the prospects for prosperity and security in Africa in every imaginable way.

Mr Ibori's wife, his sister, and his mistress, who each had each received money from the sale of the shares in V-Mobile (which were assets of the people of Nigeria), were also arrested in London and were sentenced to five years in prison.

My written witness statements were submitted and I prepared to appear in court to be cross-examined.

The night before I was due to take the stand in an open London court as witness for the state, I was told Mr Gohil and his associates had suddenly pleaded guilty. My lawyers told me that my witness statement was too strong and Mr Gohil and his team were afraid they would get even stiffer sentences!

In late 2010, Mr Gohil was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison for crimes including conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to make false instruments, money laundering and proceeds of crime. The sentencing judge said to him, "You were a solicitor of the Supreme Court and holding out as a man of integrity... You have brought shame on your family, your profession and your country.”

When corrupt people like this get into trouble, they often pay some of the best lawyers in the world to help them get out of it. Taking them on successfully requires authorities equally determined and sophisticated in their approach. These authorities in turn need the cooperation of witnesses prepared to stand in court and help with the prosecution.


To be continued . . .

Mtsheeew!
Propaganda!

The video is a 3d presentation of a non existent platform!
How will they enter the US?
And while these are flying to the nearest airfield, the radar operators I'm sure will be sleeping?
Abi?

Wonderful!
So, Ambode reads our comments on Nairaland!
Wow!
The way we fired him in the other thread, for the billions he purportedly saved while the roads are going bad.
Good one from Ambode!
At least you listen to the people!
Good!

Abeg
Can we borrow the Russian military?

Is this a new video?

Anyway, if I am a soldier and got cornered?
I will never surrender and will take as many as I can with me!

Strive Masiyiwa
Afterthought 1.

Countries around the world can easily enter into a global accord to introduce laws like the one used by the U.S. and the UK.
We need to see such exemplary convictions in Switzerland, France, Germany, India, Brazil, Dubai, China and even South Africa. Banks in those countries and their law enforcement agents must be willing to do what we saw the British do against Ibori and his associates.

asha80:
this report sort of indicts ex governor victor attah and the presidency under yaradua

Which ex governor is free?
Today we are reading about Econet , tomorrow it will be another company!
Corruption has someone said above has been institutionalized!

Chubhie:
The mods should be able to give him the needed protection but if they elect to give a beauty of a thread as this the default Nairaland free for all fight then, we should be ready to take bullets for him so truths can come to light. It is now a question of if and when he obliges.

Count me in

I see the hands of Odumakin in this rubbish!

Chubhie:
So many talking points. Let me read the update and draft some questions and send to strive and also invite him here to take questions..... I hope he obliges.

Wonderful idea
We will welcome him here to do an AMA!
Hope he has thick skin sha?

modath:
The curious case of the unnamed 2nd person.

He is not likely to mention it to avoid a lawsuit.





@pangea,


See what I advised- "The Topic Title", it must be catchy.....You did good but...

Lol
The most important thing is the discussion
We all need to start talking about bringing down corruption in Nigeria.
The more people that get enlightened by what strive is saying, the better.

https://www.nairaland.com/2612215/corruption-econet-nigeriathe-bombshell-econet

Bevista:
I have always held Gov Victor Attah in high esteem, but Strive Masiyiwa is challenging that position now.

I remember working in the regional office of a first generation bank in Akwa Ibom state in '07. During that time (Feb '07), the proceeds of the divestment from Econet shares was paid into a domicillary account (which was hurriedly opened on a Sunday) in one of the branches in the region. The value was $80m. At that time, I had just joined the bank, so I had no idea what the State initial shares in Econet was or whether the divestment was full or partial, but that money was huge dropping on the CABAL of the branch. The branch made a profit of over N200m that month just from COT from that account.

Something else I noticed as a young lad then was that the State Accountant General wrote to the bank to convert the $80m proceeds into Naira and be paid into a stage govt Naira account. The curious part was that, at the time, dollar was exchanging at N128, but the AG specifically wrote to the bank stating that the dollars should be exchanged at N126/$. Of course, the bank exchanged the money @ N128 and paid N126 to the government account. The AG and the bankers shared N2x80m (N160m). How do I know all this? I was the P.A to the Regional Director, so I was naively privy to most of the correspondences and transactions.

Apparently, from what strive has written, it is obvious the state was massively short-changed in that transaction. For Strive to suggest that the SPV structure he saw was going to help govt officials pocket over $100m, then it is possible that the value of the state govt shares in Econet at that time may have been in excess of $150m. Yet, the state officially got only $80m.

Do we need people like strive to open up this kind of deals?
If their hands are clean, are these info not supposed to be public domain?
Government in nigeria is run like a secret cult, I voted for Buhari but I must point out that even, he is also toeing thesame line.
From all indications, no one is clean, starting from our founding fathers
No one is clean, I mean no one!
From North to the East, to the South and to the West.
It is corruption galore.
Until we the youths of this country, arm ourselves with knowledge and start asking relevant questions, I am afraid, this country will continue to be the grave yards of talents that it is, for the wealth that ought to be our support has all been looted.
And it will continue to get worse!
These information should be our rallying point and we should ask more questions from all the companies doing business in nigeria.

TonySpike:
After reading all these testimonies, it keeps me wondering on how much bribes and kickbacks must have been paid by someone like Aliko Dangote to keep his business afloat. This is so unfortunate. By the way, Masiyiwa is so right about Botswana, this is perhaps the only country in Africa that is almost 100% corruption free!

This is a front page material...

People like Dangote, Adenuga, Otedola and Co practically converted the government money to their personal stash!
I still wonder the sense in Jonathan put them in his economic team?
They manipulated the economic policies to their advantage!
Those people are all economic saboteurs!

Chubhie:
Edit and Make the Topic controversially sensational. Paste the part on Nigeria on your Opening post. Every attempted attempt to allow this die a natural death shall be resisted.

I've done the best i can,
onward to front page!

Cc:
Obrigardo
politricks
Wanice
Chubhie
TonySpike
modath
Omenka
Gbawe
hahn
mapet
Seun
Afam4eva, 
OAM4J
lalasticlala
passingshot

In a saner clime,
All these deep revelations are enough to send many people to prison and change government!
But in Nigeria?

[size=13pt]Strive Masiyiwa
It’s time to play by a different (ethical) set of rules (Part 9) Nigeria 3
[/size]
__ Beware the company you keep

The state government of Akwa Ibom held 15% of the equity in Econet Wireless Nigeria. This state was not one of the original investors but joined us later.

After five years, the governor of the state of Akwa Ibom decided to sell its stake. It had more than doubled in value in dollar terms, which meant it had been a good investment.

The state governor, an elderly gentleman called Victor Attah, sent a message through a friend that he wanted to see me in London to find out if I was interested in exercising Econet’s right to buy its shares. I agreed to meet him in London.

"I want to sell the shares to build an airport before I leave office," the governor explained.

The governor was accompanied to the meeting by a British lawyer who sat quietly taking notes. His name was Bhadresh Gohil.

With a wave of his hand, the governor said, "Mr Gohil is our legal advisor here in London. I have instructed him to handle all our negotiations with you."

The meeting did not last more than 30 minutes, as the governor was on his way to catch a flight to the U.S.

We agreed with Mr Gohil that we would meet with my own advisors a few days later to start the process.

A few days later, I went to his office with a professional banker who advised me on such transactions. We met in the lawyer's plush London offices. He was confident and smooth-spoken as he explained how much we were expected to pay. Then he explained that our money was to go to a "Special Purpose Vehicle" (SPV) before it was transferred to Nigeria. It was a sophisticated structure and he showed me a drawing of how it would work. I wrote it all down very carefully into my notebook.

___Such corporate entities as SPVs can definitely have legitimate purposes, but this one did not!

As I quizzed him about why such an unusual structure was necessary, Mr Gohil changed tact and tried to entice me with an offer I could not refuse (or so he hoped): "I'm also the advisor to the governor of Delta State, Mr James Ibori, and if you agree to pay for these shares using this structure, we will offer you shares belonging to all the state governments. In total, you can have more than 30% additional shares. It will be enough to take control of the company. My clients just want out, and they are willing to give you what you have always wanted."

I listened to him, quietly taking notes in my small notebook. I did not give away anything, but inside I was very angry. From the design of the structure, I knew immediately that it was meant to siphon off money before it reached the state governments. It was clear there was a conspiracy to steal a lot of money.

___Having already pocketed $13.5m, now the government officials could easily pocket probably another $100m through the sale process that they had developed with the help of Mr Gohil and other clever advisors in London!

When I left the meeting I immediately contacted the mutual friend who'd set up the governor's meeting. The friend was so embarrassed as I explained the corrupt structure clearly designed to steal money from the state governments. He promised to raise the issue with Governor Victor Attah. A few days later he came back and said Governor Attah had claimed ignorance about the proposal put to me by Mr Gohil. He said he would speak to Mr Gohil and tell him it had to be done properly without the structures.

We never heard from them again. Mr Gohil simply vanished. A few months later we were told that the shares had been offered to a company from the Middle East who subsequently bought them. I was not privy to how they did it except that they had violated my right to buy the shares... That is another chapter in the saga, but not for now.

Fast-forward three years, long after the sale. Our lawyers in London called me one day and asked if I could come urgently to a meeting with the Proceeds of Corruption Unit of the London Metropolitan Police: "You are not in any trouble, but I think you will find what they have to say very interesting!"

This special unit was launched by the British to investigate corruption by foreign government officials who try to launder stolen money to the U.S. and the UK.

The officers asked me to explain everything I knew about the sale of V-Mobile shares to Celtel (later Zain).

I explained the history of the entire transaction and the shareholders disputes that had led to our departure. After awhile, they asked me to focus on specific events, and, in particular, my meetings in London with the governor of Akwa Ibom, and also the meetings with Mr Gohil. It became clear to me that they had a lot of information!

"What can you tell us about this structure, using a Special Purpose Vehicle?"

I explained my understanding of it. Later on, I gave them my diary in which I had recorded the details of my meeting that day with Mr Gohil.

Below my drawing of the structure, I had written in bold letters:

"This is corrupt!!!"

Not long after my meeting with the Proceeds of Corruption Unit, Mr Gohil was arrested together with one of his partners and several others. I later learned that when the Middle Eastern company bought the shares, some of the proceeds had been diverted using the Gohil structure. Some of the money was sent to a bank in London. This large amount of money was enough to alert the British authorities that money was being laundered through their banking system.

Their investigations led them to Gohil and his associates. They raided his offices and found stashes of documents, including details of the structures. Now they were looking for witnesses to help prosecute them for corruption and money laundering.

The British authorities tried without success to get other parties, including the governor of Akwa Ibom, to come out and clear their names but they refused. Officials of President Umaru Musa Yar'Aduah's government successfully thwarted all extradition requests.

I was asked to be a witness in the trial of those who had been arrested in London. I willingly accepted. Next I will tell you about my role as a 'Witness to the Crown" on behalf of the people of Nigeria whose money had been stolen. It would be the first time that someone big went to jail (in a foreign country) for stealing money from Africans.

To be continued . . .

pcicero:
Meanwhile, Dr Strive has updated the details on his Facebook wall.

He has included details of former Akwa Ibom governor's attempt to sell its stakes.

@ Pangea kindly update.

Thanks

Wow!
Standby

The person that designed such terrible weapon system has a special place in hell reserved for him!

Cluster munition is the worst of them all, it's so difficult to clean up and will continue to maim and kill people years after the conflict has ended.
That is why the United Nations placed a ban on it!
What is such doing in our inventory especially when we are fighting an insurgency.
We have the worst illiterates and stupid people in our army.
Why did they deploy cluster munitions against an internal crisis?
They even allow it to fall into the enemies hands?
It's like deploying a dirty bomb (nuclear weapon ) against an enemy on your own land, poisoning the land.

This story for the gods can only move nigerian government, not the UK!

Chubhie:
Edit and Make the Topic controversially sensational. Paste the part on Nigeria on your Opening post. Every attempted attempt to allow this die a natural death shall be resisted.

I will try and do that immediately the rest of the article comes in.

Make the lady no sweat jare!
Abeg, sleep with your two eyes closed, nothing go happen!
Those are empty threats from known chest beaters!

Chai!
See brain matter for that first picture.

It seems as if Putin's spetznaz will be needed to stamp out these roaches that seems to never die!

Obrigardo:
Even the set up of the forum is swimming in corruption capitalist-style. But there is hope for the rest of us.

Obrigardo:
thanks... Seun this is what should make the frontpage and should be pinned on the front page for the remainder of the year.
If that is your fight towards corruption (which we are all equally yoked in), please do that admin!

lalasticlala front page or you dey sleep?

Lols
I've been putting up the articles on this thread for quite awhile, seems many are not too interested because it's quite a long read for our people. They prefers pictures and summary, but they still want the country to change.
We all are joking!
Peter Okoye posted a picture today comparing the country where he has gone for a show to Nigeria and he prayed that even if he will not live to see nigeria becoming like that country that God should please let his children be a witness to it.
I really cry for my country!

Paul Okoye of P-square is gradually losing hope in Nigeria but he decided to back it up with prayer.

Paul who’s on tour in the United States shared the below photo of a city in the country and said:

''Dear God even if I know I will never see my country like this..... But at list let my children or grand children see my country like this one day....na beg I de beg,....this na wickedness Haba!!! Asin I taya !!!''

Strive Masiyiwa
Afterthought 2.

As I completed this post, a Nigerian former Minister of Oil has just been arrested in Britain this week, under the same law used against James Ibori. If you as a Nigerian have evidence in such matters, will you stand up, even in court, or are you afraid?

Strive Masiyiwa
Afterthought 1.

The British counterparts of the EFCC were able to bring James Ibori and his associates to book (as you will see in the next post) because they were well supported by both the political and the judicial system in the UK. I also believe that much of the evidence to bring him down came from officers in EFCC who passed it on to the British knowing that their counterparts were better placed to bring him to book. In other countries, agencies like EFCC exist but for a completely different purpose...but that is for another day.

[size=13pt]Strive Masiyiwa
It’s time to play by a different (ethical) set of rules (Part 8 ) Nigeria 2[/size]

___As citizens, we have a duty to speak out to stop the rot

Nigeria has an agency known as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). After we had to leave the country, a few noble people at the company tipped off not only me but the EFCC about the payment of the bribes, which had by this time risen from $9m to $13,5m.

I had never actually heard about this agency myself until I got a call from the Nigerian Embassy in South Africa to say they wanted to come and see me to interview me as a witness.

A team of very senior EFCC officers came to see us in South Africa. They were solid and professional in their enquiry. It was clear they wanted to do something about it.

However, when these officers returned home to Nigeria, they got into very serious trouble. Their investigations into the irregular payments had been brought to the attention of James Ibori (Governor of Delta State)…

Soon thereafter, the most senior officer leading the investigation was demoted and sent to a remote part of the country as an ordinary policeman!

Agencies like EFCC in Nigeria sometimes have brave and gallant law enforcement officers. Unfortunately, as I observed, they’re often let down by their political bosses, and sometimes even by the courts. This can change if activism from the citizenry emerges to support their work.

___We should not only support official efforts to stop corruption but also help these agencies and organisations in their investigations. If you have relevant information about illegal activities, passing it on could make all the difference between impunity and imprisonment.

In my letter to the US Justice Department, I detailed the full history of the demands for a bribe. I had dates, times, records. I then reminded them that since the big international operator had a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, they were duty-bound to launch an enquiry. Why did I go to them?

The United States government has a law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The United Kingdom has a similar one called the British Anti-Bribery Act. Whatever you do, make sure you never fall foul of those laws because, if they ever use them to come after you, you’re a "gonner" my friends.

A few weeks later, US officials wrote back advising me that an enquiry had been launched. They contacted the big international company seeking answers to my allegations. My contacts at the company called to tell me, "All hell has broken loose at the company."

The parent company of the South African-based multinational sent external auditors and lawyers from London to Nigeria. They immediately dismissed all the senior executives sent to Nigeria to run the company, and they left in a hurry!

Although they fled the scene of the crime and returned to their country -- after admitting even to both the US Justice Department and the EFCC that the money had been paid out – the stolen funds were never returned to the Nigerian people, even to this day.

Meanwhile, the departure of the other mobile operator did not mean we could return to Nigeria. The shareholders found another operator, this time from the Middle East.

They sold this new operator the control of the company even though Econet Wireless Nigeria had the "right of first refusal" over any sale. They simply ignored that provision in our agreement. This was illegal, both according to our shareholders agreement and Nigerian Company Law. It was left for us to take up the fight in another forum, the Nigerian courts.

To be continued…

That is not a bad road,
It's a sinkhole!

Afonja ko,
Ephialtes ni!