United States Government Seizes Alamesigha’s House In Maryland United States.
A federal judge approved the U.S. Justice Department’s forfeiture order against a Maryland house belonging to an allegedly corrupt former Nigerian governor.
Former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (right), who was recently granted state pardon for graft charges, waves upon arrival for Democracy Day celebrations in Nigeria on May 29.
The forfeiture on the $700,000 Rockville, Md., 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, governor of Nigeria’s oil-producing Bayelsa state, from 1999 to 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 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.
