Other oil executives allegedly paid for flights on private jets for Ms Alison-Madueke to destinations, which prosecutors claim included Vienna, Hamburg and Doha, with each flight costing tens of thousands of dollars, allegedly. The court also heard allegations that Ms Alison-Madueke’s brother Doye Agama, the churchman, was part of a conspiracy to conceal bribes disguised as over US$1.4 million as charitable donations to his church in Manchester in northern England to buy a property. Unfortunately, the Financial Times reported that the name of the donor had been given incorrectly when the vendors’ representatives queried the source of funds, which raised red flags. The former minister herself owned or benefited from the use of a number of expensive properties in London and the south of England, which were shown in court.
It is not the first time that the British authorities have pursed a corruption case involving a Nigerian government official, In 2012, James Ibori, former governor of Delta state, was sentenced to 13-years in prison after pleading guilty to money laundering.
We’ll keep you posted on the outcome of this trial. Many, both foreign and Nigerian, have asked whether the compliance and NNPC has truly strengthened since Ms Alison-Madueke was running the show. We hope so, but we doubt it.
Rebrand to DP World has bad timing
Late last year, Dubai-headquartered ports operator DP World announced the unification of all its Marine Services brands, Unifeeder, P&O Ferrymasters and P&O Maritime Logistics, under a single DP World brand, which it claimed would strengthen its position as a fully integrated global logistics provider.
The businesses will now operate as DP World Shipping Solutions (formerly Unifeeder), DP World Multimodal Solutions (formerly P&O Ferrymasters) and DP World Maritime Solutions (formerly P&O Maritime Logistics). The latter operates 47 offshore support vessels, including PSVs and anchor handlers in the Middle East, Indian Ocean and West Africa. Altogether, DP World owns and operates five hundred vessels across its different business divisions.
CEO of DP World named in Epstein files
One of the unwritten rules of the United Arab Emirates is that different standards apply to different categories of people, especially to wealthy Emiratis. We have all heard the stories of what allegedly goes on behind closed doors in the UAE, the Dubai chocolate saga, and why so many Instagram influencers of both sexes with impressive physical attributes flock to the Gulf.
Unfortunately, latest batch of Epstein file disclosures come at a bad time for DP World and its leadership, and leave the royal family of Dubai as its shareholders with some difficult questions about what to do regarding the behaviour of DP World’s Chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem. Documents released by the DOJ indicate that there was an especially close relationship between the DP World boss and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In 2010, Mr Epstein referred to Mr bin Sulayem as his “close personal friend” whom the financier had known “for more than eight years”.
