The case of former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, and her business associates Kolawole Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore acquiring assets in Manhattan, California, and London through profits gained from selling Nigerian crude oil to third party oil trading companies is an example of Nigerians buying the most properties in the United States to launder your money.
According to a new report titled: “Acres of Money Laundering, Why American Real Estate Companies are the Dream of the Kleptocracy”, prepared by the think tank Global Finance Integrity, Nigeria ranks fifth among countries with the most politically exposed persons involved in real estate money laundering schemes in the US. Mexico leads the world political class that thus hides its illicit profits, along with Venezuela, Guatemala, and Malaysia.
According to the report, the analysis of 125 cases by Global Finance Integrity, which includes Nigerian government officials, estimates that between 2015 and 2020, at least $ 2.3 trillion was laundered in the United States real estate sector, including millions more through other alternate assets like art, jewellery, and yachts.
Case number 24 in the report details the case of Diezani Alison Madueke, the former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, and her business associates Kolawole Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore, acquiring vast quantities of Nigerian crude oil that were then sold to third party oil trading companies.
According to the report, through this scheme, Madueke and her coconspirators acquired over US$1.5 billion in profits that were then laundered into real estate, yachts, aircrafts and jewellery.
In a 2017 forfeiture complaint, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sought the forfeiture of US$144 million in assets, including two condos in Manhattan, two properties in California, properties in London and an estimated US$80 million luxury yacht acquired by Aluko in 2012. These numbers did not include the 80 properties Madueke had also acquired in Nigeria.