EXCLUSIVE: How Diezani Alison-
Madueke Laundered Looted Money And
Her Accomplices Revealed
An investigation by SaharaReporters has
revealed some of the ways in which former
Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, and
her network of accomplices, family members, and
shell companies sought to conceal and launder an
astonishing amount of the former minister’s
corruptly acquired wealth. The laundered funds
are the focus of twin investigations by British and
Nigerian anti-corruption agencies.
Last Friday, the International Corruption Unit of
the British National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested
Mrs. Alison-Madueke and four other suspects in
London.
SaharaReporters has exclusively obtained
intelligence documents and briefing on financial
information regarding Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s
extensive acts of corruption and money
laundering. Our investigation also involved
interviews with several individuals in possession
of highly sensitive information about the illicit flow
of funds to the former minister’s front companies
and individuals.
An intelligence analyst with intimate knowledge of
the embattled ex-minister’s family and business
network told SaharaReporters that UK
investigators were focusing on several real
estate properties in the United Kingdom. The
source added that Mrs. Alison-Madueke],
probably in 2011, in trust for the Petroleum
Minister.”
However, Mr. Wagbatsoma is associated with a
shadowy energy company named Ontario Oil and
Gas, which trades Nigerian crude on international
markets and whose directors are currently facing
money-laundering trial in Nigerian courts.
According to the Berne Declaration, an
independent watchdog organization, Ontario Oil
and Gas continues to export Nigerian crude
despite accusations by the Nigerian government
that the company misappropriated more than 4.2
billion naira—and arrests of the firm’s executives
by the EFCC. According to the company’s own
website, it exports at least 2 million barrels of
crude oil a month.
The Natural Resource Governance Institute
reported that Ontario Oil and Gas, along with
another company, Aiteo, saw “their shares of the
Nigerian crude and products markets grow
rapidly under the Jonathan government,” despite
their very limited experience. The report also
noted: “Ontario relied on a few foreign traders to
take its [petroleum] allocation to market.”
Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s third accomplice, who
was described as such in two separate
intelligence reports leaked to SaharaReporters, is
Donald Chidi Amamgbo. Mr. Amamgbo reportedly
studied law at Howard University in Washington,
DC at the same time Mrs. Alison-Madueke was
studying there as a student of architecture. It is
believed that they met each other in DC.
According to biographical information available in
intelligence reports, in January 2012 Mr.
Amamgbo was suspended from practicing law in
California, where he relocated, for one year.
However, his main focus seemed to have already
turned to managing three companies under his
ownership, specifically Tidax Energy, Mezcor SA,
and Lynear SA.
Tradax, Mezcor, and Lynear are all based out of
Geneva, Switzerland and all three are connected
to a Portuguese national, Daniel Roy Joanes, and
an American national, Richard Levinson. The
Natural Resources Governance Institute
characterized Tridax as an example of suspicious
conduct because the firm’s “corporate structures
stretch outside Nigeria.” The report found that Mr.
Amamgbo owned 49% of Tridax with the
remaining 51% of the ownership belonging to
Tridax Oil domiciled in Switzerland. Further
tracing the corporate structure of Tridax, it was
revealed that 100% of it is owned by a sister
company based in Malta, with 99% of that
company owned by Calpenergy Fund in Gibraltar,
with 67% of it owned in turn by Daniel Roy
Joanes, with the remaining 33% owned by
Turicum Private Bank also located in Gibraltar.
This kind of circuitous ownership arrangement
often typifies an attempt by a corporate entity’s
real owners to hide their identities.
SaharaReporters obtained an intelligence report
that stated, “Mezcor SA is clearly the lead
company of the three run by Amamgbo.” Mr.
Amamgbo also owns 49% of Mezcor, with the
remaining 51% owned by Mr. Joanes and Mr.
Levinson. Mr. Joanes, who previously worked as
an asset manager for Clariden Leu, later worked
for Bank Hapoalim. He also owns NFS Partners,
which is co-located in the same office as Mezcor
in Geneva.
Mr. Levinson is described in one report as having
“a scandalous past” and has the dubious
distinction of owning one of the first companies to
be suspended by the US government for
fraudulent activity during reconstruction after the
Iraq War in 2003. According to the Wall Street
Journal, “a [US] federal jury in Alexandria, VA
found that Custer Battles [owned by Levinson]
defrauded the US government of $3 million by
filing faked invoices.”
US authorities later discovered that Mr.
Levinson’s companies billed the American
government $10 million for work estimated to
actually cost only $4 million. In a curious
corporate sleight of hand, Mr. Levinson sold
Custer Battles to Danubia Global Inc., a company
based in Bucharest, Romania, for one dollar. It
turned out that he owned Danubia as well.
One intelligence investigation found that Mr.
Levinson “acts as a director of the five
companies [in which] Daniel Roy Joanes is also a
director.”
According to another investigation, Tridax is a
beneficiary of one of “38 contracts for 1,179,000
barrels per day crude lifting awarded by the
[Nigerian] Federal Government last year.” The
NNPC, which awards these contracts, also
awarded a contract to Mezcor SA and two
companies it worked with—India Oil Company
and Fujairah Refinery.
These companies’ ties to Mrs. Alison-Madueke
extend beyond questionable crude oil lifting
contracts and her relationship with Mr. Donald
Chidi Amamgbo. Investigators showed
SaharaReporters documents that established that
Timi John Agama, the former Petroleum
Minister’s younger brother, has a financial stake
and is a part owner of both Mezcor and Tridax.
The Madueke-Agama Family Business Network:
SaharaReporters has learned, from profiles of
Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s sons, brothers, and
nephews, that the family’s core businesses are
suspiciously located at a single address: Unit 8,
Quebec Buildings, Manchester M3 7DU in the
United Kingdom. The main business is listed as
Hadley Petroleum Solutions Ltd. But other
corporate entities registered at the same location
include Ryan and Bell Solutions Ltd., Callserv Ltd.,
Parrot Mobile Ltd., Mail Express Ltd., and Stone
International Ltd.
