The Maryland, United States home of former
Bayelsa state governor, Diepreye
Alamieyeseigha has been forfeited to the
US government following the approval by a
federal judge of the Justice Department’s
forfeiture order.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the
forfeiture on the $700,000 Rockville,
Maryland house was executed Friday after
U.S District Judge Roger W. Titus granted
the Justice Department’s motion for
default judgment against the property. The
Justice Department said the house belonged
to Diepreye Peter Solomon Alamieyeseigha,
who was Bayelsa governor between 1999 and
2005.
According to prosecutors, Alamieyeseigha’s
assets were the proceeds of corruption.
Alamieyeseigha has previously denied the
allegations in court filings. A lawyer for
Alamieyeseigha could not be immediately
reached for comment.
The forfeiture is part of a fledgling
Justice Department initiative dedicated to
seeking out assets in the U.S. linked to
high-level foreign corruption. Last year,
a federal district judge in Massachusetts
granted a motion for default judgment and
civil forfeiture on a $401,931
Massachusetts brokerage fund that
allegedly belonged to Alamieyeseigha.
“Foreign officials who think they can use
the United States as a stash-house are
sorely mistaken,” Acting Assistant
Attorney General Mythili Raman said in a
news release. “Through the Kleptocracy
Initiative, we stand with the victims of
foreign official corruption as we seek to
forfeit the proceeds of corrupt leaders’
illegal activities.”
A Nigerian court sentenced Alamieyeseigha
to two years in prison in 2007 for failing
to declare assets in Nigeria, South Africa
and the U.S. Prosecutors said he bought
more than $8 million in properties with
bribes he received from contractors while
serving as governor. Alamieyeseigha
pleaded guilty to money laundering on
behalf of two companies he controlled—
Solomon & Peters Ltd. and Alamieyeseigha
and Santolina Investment Corp.
Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
and Alamieyeseigha successor in the state,
granted an unconditional pardon to
Alamieyeseigha in March, sparking outrage
among local media and Jonathan’s political
opponents. The pardon didn’t appear to
effect the U.S. Justice Department’s
efforts.
Alamieyeseigha has been the focus of legal
scrutiny in the U.K. In 2006, the High
Court of Justice in London found three of
Alamieyeseigha’s properties there, as well
as accounts held by Santolina, represented
bribe money or were traceable to bribes
Alamieyeseigha took from contractors in
Nigeria. After he was arrested at Heathrow
Airport in 2005, police found about $1.6
million in cash in his house.
The home in Rockville, a suburb of
Washington, D.C., is owned by Solomon &
Peters Ltd., a shell company controlled by
Alamieyeseigha, according to court papers.
The Justice Department and Alamieyeseigha
offered drastically different accounts of
how the house came to be in his
possession.
In previous court filings, Alamieyeseigha
had choice words for the U.S. efforts and
Nigeria’s political culture.
“I am not unaware of the monkey politics
that is played in third world countries
like Nigeria with the active connivance of
over zealous individuals, agencies and
government parastals (sic) touting
themselves as global ethics compliance
monitors,” he wrote in a 2011 affidavit.
“The civil forfeiture action which was
brought against the defendant property in
a quest to score cheap points as the
global watchdog should be dismissed.”
The Justice Department didn’t say where
the forfeited funds would be directed.
According to the news release, “where
possible and appropriate [the Justice
Department will] return those corruption
proceeds for the benefit of the people of
the nations harmed by the corruption.” A
Justice Department spokesman didn’t
immediately respond to an inquiry about
whether or not the funds would be returned
to Nigeria.
.with report by Wall Street Journal
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