UK seeks to seize $39 mln from lawyer who helped corrupt Nigerian politician

By Estelle Shirbon
LONDON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - British prosecutors launched an
attempt on Thursday to confiscate 30.8 million pounds ($39.3
million) from a London lawyer who assisted a Nigerian politician
in looting and laundering funds from the oil state he governed.
Bhadresh Gohil was convicted in 2010 of 13 counts of
money-laundering and other offences linked to his role in the
case of James Ibori, who was governor of Delta State in southern
Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. Gohil was sentenced to 10 years in
prison.
Then a partner at a firm in the London district of Mayfair,
Gohil had helped Ibori channel stolen funds through shell
companies and offshore accounts, and buy assets such as an
English country house and a $20 million private jet - although
police caught up with the men before the jet was delivered.
Gohil also masterminded a fraud in which $37 million in fake
consultancy fees was stolen from two Nigerian states in
connection with the sale of their stakes in a telecoms company.
With its highly developed financial and legal services
industries, Britain has long been a favoured destination for
people seeking to launder dirty money.
Banks have been fined and scandals revealed by leaks such as
the FinCEN and Panama papers, but it remains unusual for direct
beneficiaries such as Ibori and Gohil to be held to account.
Ibori was extradited to Britain in 2011, and in 2012 was
convicted of 10 counts of fraud and money-laundering and jailed
for 13 years - a rare instance of a senior Nigerian politician
serving time for plundering public funds.
Britain hailed the case as a landmark in the fight against
corruption and pledged to return stolen funds to Nigerian state
coffers. But confiscation proceedings against both Ibori and
Gohil have dragged on for close to a decade, repeatedly delayed
by appeals and complications.
In Ibori's case, a hearing took place at London's Southwark
Crown Court in January. Prosecutors asked the court to make a
confiscation order against Ibori of 117.7 million pounds. The
judge has yet to hand down his decision. A hearing on Gohil's case is ongoing at the same court. Lead
prosecution counsel Jonathan Kinnear on Thursday began setting
out the details of what he said was Gohil's criminal benefit.
Gohil will have a chance later in the hearing to call
witnesses and give evidence himself to dispute the prosecution
case. Any confiscation order against him, as for Ibori, will be
issued by the judge at a later date.
($1 = 0.7836 pounds)

(Editing by Nick Macfie)