UK Court Asks Ibori’s Money Launderer To Pay N3.2bn Fine Or Face 10 Years In Jail

A british court has ordered a former Goldman Sachs banker who helped a corrupt Nigerian politician hide a fortune in offshore to pay back £7.3m or face 10 years more in jail. 

Ellias Preko, 60, used his ‘gold-plated credentials’ to launder at least £3m plundered by James Ibori, the former governor of Africa’s oil-rich Delta State. 

Preko, a Ghanaian national and Harvard graduate, used his ‘expertise and veneer of respectability’ to flush the dirty money out of Nigeria. 

He was jailed for four and a half years back in 2013 for his role in the scheme.   

Judge David Tomlison ordered Preko to pay back £7,324.268.41 following a confiscation hearing. 

Preko has three months to repay the money or face another 10 years in jail. 

Ibori, a former DIY store cashier prior his rise into politics, was jailed for 13 years in 2012 after he admitted stealing state funds during an eight-year term of office. 

The court heard how he pocketed up to £160 million from government treasuries, depriving some of the world’s poorest people of the cash.  

The former governor, splashed out on a fleet of luxury motors and blew millions on property in Britain, South Africa and Houston, Texas. 

He was in the process of negotiating a purchase on a £12.5m private jet when Scotland Yard detectives caught up with him. 

Ibori, of Westover Hill, Hampstead, northwest London, admitted seven counts of fraud and money laundering. 

Preko, of St Johns Wood Road, St Johns Wood, northwest London, denied charges but was convicted of money laundering. 

UK Daily Mail