Unlawful interference: Court restrains EFCC from prosecuting Aiteo founder, fines agency N200m

A federal capital territory high court has restrained the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) from filing criminal charges against Benedict Peters, founder and chief executive officer of Aiteo Group.

In a judgment delivered on November 2, Adegbola Adeniyi, the presiding judge, also extended the order of restraint to the National Crime Agency (UK), Crown Prosecution Service (UK), as well as three individuals — Helen Hughes, Stacey Boniface, and John Bavister.

In the suit marked FCT/HC/CV/0536/17 filed in 2017 by Peters and three of his companies — Colinwood Limited, Rosewood Investments Limited and Walworth Properties Limited — the Aiteo founder claimed that he was being intimidated by the defendants.

He claimed that his properties were wrongfully included in a list of properties alleged to belong to Diezani Alison-Madueke, former petroleum minister, who is on trial over fraud allegations.

Peters claimed that even though there was ample proof that he was the owner of the properties, the defendants continued to withhold the information with the intention of not only permanently depriving him of the properties, but also of destroying him and his business interests.

The properties include “(i) 270-17 Street, Unit #4204, Atlanta, Georgia; (ii) Flat 5 Parkview, 83-86 Prince Albert Road, St John’s Wood, London; (iii) Flat 58 Harley House Marylebone, London; and (iv) Apartment 4, 5 Arlington Road, London”.

In his ruling, the judge held that the defendants “misrepresented facts” and knew that the properties genuinely belonged to the Aiteo founder.

He held that the “predominant purpose of the deceitful sham allegations by the defendants that the assets/properties listed in relief 1 above belonged to persons other than the claimants was directly intended albeit to inflict economic loss on the claimants just as much as it was to unlawfully profit the defendants”.

“It is hereby further declared that the unlawful means of conspiracy of the defendants was to extract by intimidation, coercion, the assets, properties and monies to which the claimants are legitimately entitled,” the judge held.

The judge restrained the defendants, “their operatives, officers, agents, and servants… from interfering with the proprietary rights and/or interests of the claimants, their agents, alter-ego or privies in relation to the properties listed in this suit”.

He specifically restrained them from interfering with Peters, “either by way of arrest, criminal indictment, charge, interdiction, extradition or in any other manner infringing on his personal liberty and freedom of movement on the facts and circumstances of this case, especially in the face of subsisting judgments of various courts on the issues”.

The court also awarded N200 million fine as general damages against the defendants “for the unlawful interference, economic loss, loss of corporate goodwill from creditors, expropriation of personal assets and proprietary rights of the claimants”.

In April 2022, the court of appeal, Abuja division, ordered the EFCC to release two London properties belonging to the billionaire businessman over wrongful forfeiture.

The appellate court, in rejecting the anti-graft commission’s appeal, upheld Binta Nyako’s judgment from the federal high court which held that the disputed assets rightfully belonged to Peters and could not be forfeited to any authority.