A
forfeiture judgment was executed today against real property with an estimated
value of more than $700,000 in Rockville, Md., that had been purchased with
corruption proceeds traceable to Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha, a
former Governor of Bayelsa State, Nigeria, announced Acting Assistant Attorney
General Mythili Raman of the Criminal Division and U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton.
“Foreign
officials who think they can use the United States as a stash-house are sorely
mistaken,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Raman. “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.”
“This
investigation was initiated by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
Asset Identification & Removal Group (AIRG) in Baltimore, in an effort to
recover the criminal proceeds from Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha’s
assets, whose shell companies were convicted of money laundering offenses in
Nigeria,” said ICE Director Morton.
“HSI’s AIRG will continue working with the Department of Justice to seek
to recover illicit proceeds gained through foreign corruption and to protect
the U.S. financial system from being utilized by criminals.”
Alamieyeseigha,
aka DSP, was the elected governor of oil-producing Bayelsa State in Nigeria
from 1999 until his impeachment in 2005.
As alleged in the U.S. forfeiture complaint, DSP’s official salary for
this entire period was approximately $81,000, and his declared income from all
sources during the period was approximately $248,000. Nevertheless, while governor, DSP accumulated
millions of dollars’ worth of property located around the world through
corruption and other illegal activities.
The complaint alleges that DSP acquired the Rockville property during
his first term as governor of Bayelsa State with funds obtained through
corruption, abuse of office, money laundering and other violations of Nigerian
and U.S. law. Title to the property was
transferred to Solomon & Peters, Ltd., a shell corporation controlled by
DSP and on whose behalf the former governor entered a guilty plea to money
laundering in Nigeria in 2007.
On
May 24, 2013, U.S. District Court Judge Roger W. Titus of the District of
Maryland granted a motion for a default judgment filed by the Criminal
Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section and issued a final
decree of forfeiture. The order
extinguishes all prior title and authorizes forfeiture to the United States of
the private residence located in Rockville, Maryland, estimated to be worth
more than $700,000 and allows the United States to liquidate the property in
accordance with federal law. In a
related action in the District of Massachusetts, the Department of Justice and
ICE Homeland Security Investigations successfully forfeited approximately
$400,000 from an investment account traceable to DSP.
Both
actions were brought under the Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery
Initiative announced by the Attorney General in 2010. Through this initiative, the Department of
Justice, along with federal law enforcement agencies, seeks to identify and
forfeit the proceeds of foreign official corruption, and where possible and
appropriate return those corruption proceeds for the benefit of the people of
the nations harmed by the corruption.
The
case was investigated by the HSI’s Asset Identification & Removal Group
(AIRG) in Baltimore. The case was prosecuted by Assistant Deputy Chief Daniel
H. Claman and Trial Attorney Tracy Mann of the Criminal Division’s Asset
Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, with assistance from the U.S.
Attorney’s Office of the District of Maryland.
Source: US Dept Of Justice
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