₦airaland Forum

In addition, Ganesan called for stronger professional standards so that a situation like Nigeria’s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar engineered to transfer $14 million to Washington, D.C.’s American University would not occur again.

Mr. Abubakar and his wife succeeded in bringing $40 million in suspect funds into the United States between 2000 and 2008, $14 million of which were accepted by American University. In accepting the money, the Washington school did not question the source of the offshore corporations that transferred the funds in return for consultations by the college to help Mr. Abubakar set up a university in Nigeria.

“With the case of American University and others, it is also critically important, even in the absence of legislation, that universities, realtors, and other institutions do an adequate amount of due diligence, because even if it’s not illegal, if this information comes out, it’s certainly not acceptable to most of the public. And it would certainly be eye-opening to the people of Nigeria, who haven’t seen their living standards increased necessarily, that the money and the wealth of their country is ending up in a U.S. university,” Ganesan explained.

Supporters of the new legislation are hoping that it will plug several loopholes that were revealed in Thursday’s hearing and lead to more rigorous U.S. government enforcement efforts. Arvind Ganesan recommends another tactic he hopes will prompt U.S. consular services to deny visas to foreign rulers suspected of diverting and laundering funds, a tool that he says should be used more often to prevent the sale of mansions to people implicated with “abusing the wealth of their nation for personal gain.”

MetaPhysical:
In addition, Ganesan called for stronger professional standards so that a situation like Nigeria’s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar engineered to transfer $14 million to Washington, D.C.’s American University would not occur again.

Mr. Abubakar and his wife succeeded in bringing $40 million in suspect funds into the United States between 2000 and 2008, $14 million of which were accepted by American University. In accepting the money, the Washington school did not question the source of the offshore corporations that transferred the funds in return for consultations by the college to help Mr. Abubakar set up a university in Nigeria.

“With the case of American University and others, it is also critically important, even in the absence of legislation, that universities, realtors, and other institutions do an adequate amount of due diligence, because even if it’s not illegal, if this information comes out, it’s certainly not acceptable to most of the public. And it would certainly be eye-opening to the people of Nigeria, who haven’t seen their living standards increased necessarily, that the money and the wealth of their country is ending up in a U.S. university,” Ganesan explained.

Supporters of the new legislation are hoping that it will plug several loopholes that were revealed in Thursday’s hearing and lead to more rigorous U.S. government enforcement efforts. Arvind Ganesan recommends another tactic he hopes will prompt U.S. consular services to deny visas to foreign rulers suspected of diverting and laundering funds, a tool that he says should be used more often to prevent the sale of mansions to people implicated with “abusing the wealth of their nation for personal gain.”

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