So, my Aprokonation people, lets continue with the story:
The Junta's Goldmine - Abacha and the Swiss Vaults
During the dark days of General Sani Abacha's military dictatorship (1993-1998), the 'Rich Boys' became the preferred financial oxygen for the regime. Companies like Glencore (then still operating under the Marc Rich & Co. banner) and its affiliates didn't just buy crude; they bought the men who controlled it. The system relied on 'commissions', a sanitized term for massive bribes channeled into offshore accounts in Switzerland, Singapore, and the British Virgin Islands.
Transparency International estimates that Abacha, in conspiracy with his cronies, stole between $2 billion and $5 billion from the Nigerian treasury. The infamous 'Abacha Loot,' estimated at over $5 billion, was largely facilitated by international commodity traders and their Nigerian intermediaries. They secured Nigerian crude at steep 'discounts' from the junta, sold it at full market value globally, and shared the 'spread', the massive profit margin with the generals.
Key Nigerian facilitators like Gilbert Ramez Chagoury, a Nigerian-born businessman of Lebanese descent and founder of the Chagoury Group, acted as the bridge between the 'Rich Boys' and the State House, ensuring the flow of cash never stopped. Former EFCC Chairman Nuhu Ribadu described Chagoury as 'the lynchpin in the corruption that smeared the Abacha regime". Chagoury was convicted in 2000 of money laundering and aiding a criminal organization in Switzerland. In the 1990s, he set up accounts with SG Ruegg Bank in Geneva for the Abacha family, enabling them to benefit from illegal transfers of over $120 million from the Central Bank of Nigeria. He paid a $600,000 fine to the court in Geneva, Switzerland, and refunded $66 million to the Nigerian government. In 1999, Chagoury won immunity from prosecution in a separate looted-assets case in Nigeria by agreeing to return money that he held in Swiss bank accounts reports vary, with some sources citing he returned an estimated $300 million to secure immunity.
Chagoury's business flourished through his close association with Abacha. His companies received lucrative contracts for construction, manufacturing, real estate, and hotels. In 2010, he was pulled off his private jet in New Jersey, USA, and detained for several hours after FBI agents discovered his name on a recently updated no-fly list. In 2021, he agreed to pay the U.S. government $1.8 million to resolve allegations that he conspired to violate federal election laws in a 'straw donor' scheme to route illegal foreign contributions to U.S. presidential and congressional candidates, routing approximately $180,000 through straw donors over three election cycles.
Despite his criminal record, Chagoury has remained remarkably influential in Nigerian politics. He currently serves as Saint Lucia's Ambassador to the Holy See and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO - positions that afford him diplomatic immunity in key jurisdictions. In 2015, he was awarded the Saint Lucia Cross, the country's highest civilian honor. Most recently, in January 2025, President Bola Tinubu conferred upon Chagoury the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), one of Nigeria's highest national honors, sparking significant controversy given his past convictions.
In the plunder machine that late kleptocrat Abacha set up, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu was the most prolific bagman, according to court documents. American investigators told the court: 'Abubakar Atiku Bagudu was an associate of General Abacha and his sons who participated in the conspiracy to steal and launder hundreds of millions of dollars. Among other things, Bagudu played an instrumental role in setting up and executing the complicated financial transactions used to launder the proceeds of the conspiracy'.
Bagudu was involved with all the offshore front companies and bank accounts—from the British Virgin Islands to Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Singapore, England, Paris, Guernsey, and Jersey—used to steal and launder billions of dollars belonging to Nigeria under the Abacha regime. He acted as a director and, in some cases, as a signatory of accounts or prime beneficiary. He was behind the latest recovery in the UK of $23.5 million alongside Mohammed Abacha in May 2021. Remarkably, Bagudu has been the governor of Nigeria's northwestern Kebbi State since 2015 and is an ally of the current administration.
Other key facilitators included: • Dan Etete: The former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum under the Abacha regime (1995-1998), who was found guilty of money laundering by a French court in 2007. He was convicted and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment with a fine of 300,000 euros (about $440,000). Etete would later become central to the infamous Malabu Oil scandal. • Ismaila Gwarzo: Acting Director of the National Security Organization (NSO), he was involved in bribery schemes uncovered by the French authorities. Gwarzo was later convicted in 2007 by a Paris court for corruption offences related to the purchase of inflated contracts. • Mohammed Sani: Personal aide to General Abacha, he was involved in facilitating illegal fund transfers and played a key role in coordinating offshore transactions. • Buba Marwa: Then Nigeria's Defence Advisor to the United Nations, he was involved in negotiating contracts that were inflated by some 400 to 500 percent by businessman Sani Bhojwani. • Danilo Djurovic: A representative for Ciba-Geigy Corporation in Nigeria and a business associate of Gilbert Chagoury, he facilitated illegal transfers from the Nigerian state to Abba and Mohammed Abacha. • Umaru Dikko: A legal advisor and associate to the Abacha family. Court papers state that he facilitated the payment of illegal commissions in return for securing the repayment of debts of some $470 million owed by the Nigerian government to Dumez Nigeria Plc.
While Nigeria led the African charge against apartheid, Marc Rich was secretly lifting Nigerian crude and shipping it to the apartheid regime in South Africa, proving that for these traders, loyalty to profit always superseded loyalty to the continent. In 1978, Rich and Pincus Green diverted Nigerian oil to South Africa. Green paid a $1 million bribe to the Nigerian oil minister to regain his contract in the country. During the Abacha years, this pattern of bribery became systematic and industrial in scale. Companies like Glencore, Trafigura, and Vitol operated with impunity, using their access to international banking systems and offshore jurisdictions to facilitate the looting. According to a U.N. report in February 2001, Glencore bought 1 million barrels of Iraqi crude destined for the U.S. during the Oil-for-Food program. The oil was diverted to Croatia, where it was sold for a $3 million premium that went into a secret bank account. Glencore was caught by U.N. overseers and later agreed to refund the money.
A CIA report alleged that Glencore paid more than $3.2 million in surcharges to Iraq during the Oil-for-Food programme, something the company denies. These patterns of corruption spanning multiple continents demonstrated the 'Rich Boys' modus operandi: trade with anyone, regardless of embargoes or ethics, as long as the price is right. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National reported in 2005 that Glencore 'has been accused of illegal dealings with rogue states: apartheid South Africa, USSR, Iran, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein,' and has a 'history of busting UN embargoes to profit from corrupt or despotic regimes.'