Jeremiah Useni loses bid to recover £1.9m loot from seized Jersey accounts

A royal court in Jersey has refused an application by Jeremiah Useni, a retired lieutenant-general of the Nigerian Army, to gain access to funds held in seized bank accounts in the country.

In May, the court had ordered the forfeiture of the funds totalling £1.9 million.

Useni was said to have transferred the money into the Standard Chartered Bank accounts in Jersey between the 1980s and 1990s, when he was in Nigeria’s military service.

The accounts — in US dollars, euros and sterling — were reportedly opened under the false name of “Tim Shani”.

Through his Jersey-based lawyer, Useni reportedly said he used non-existent “Tim Shani” to open the accounts for “security” reasons due to the instability in Nigeria, and that he derived his wealth and funds from gifts and multiple businesses, including real estate, farming, hospitality, and personal savings.

However, Mark Temple, Jersey’s attorney-general, argued that “the accounts were created to hold and conceal bribes, or other proceeds of corruption, received by lieutenant-general Useni during the period he held high political office in the Abacha regime”.

According to the Jersey Evening Post, in the recent application, Useni asked the court for access to the funds, saying he had “no other way” to pay his Jersey lawyers, as he had “limited income” and “cannot make international transfers”.

In his judgment, Julian Clyde-Smith, a commissioner of the court, said the retired military officer failed to prove that he does not have sufficient funds to pay his legal fees.

“It is counter-intuitive that a retired general and minister has not accumulated capital from his years in those positions with which to pay for legal representation in what are summary proceedings in Jersey, the only burden upon him being to satisfy the court on the balance of probabilities that the property held in his bank accounts is not tainted,” the commissioner said.

Clyde-Smith also said Useni disclosed significant assets in 2008, including interests in oil and gas, transportation and property development, and ownership of a number of petrol stations, a shopping complex and rice mill.

The also held that the permission sought from the court was not the right legal avenue through which to recover the funds.

“The court is being asked to ignore the clear line of authority as to the remedies available to the First Respondent and to graft some kind of new remedy on to the convention rights, and in so doing, to override the suspicion as to the bank accounts and the decision of the Jersey Financial Crimes Unit not to give consent to the operation of the accounts,” the court held.

“We decline to depart from this line of authority and agree that there is no scope for [lieutenant-general Useni] to raise the relief sought.

“If we are wrong in so finding, [Lieutenant-General Useni] has not satisfied us in any event that he does not have assets or resources from a legitimate source available to him to pay for his legal expenses.”

The application was dismissed.

Meanwhile, efforts are being explored to return the funds to the Nigerian government.

“I will explore with the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria how to return these forfeited assets to the people of Nigeria,” Mark Temple, Jersey’s attorney-general, said in a statement on the government’s website.”