A Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday ordered the closure of two companies linked to the alleged $9.6 billion Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) Ltd scandal.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two companies, Trinity Biotech Nigeria Limited and Resorts Express Concept Nigeria Ltd, are connected to the fugitive Briton, Mr. James Nolan.
In two separate judgments, Justice Donatus Okorowo found the companies guilty of money laundering offences and convicted them under the relevant Act. He ordered that both companies be wound up and their assets forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Previously, on May 6, Justice Okorowo had adjourned the two separate charges filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against the companies and the British national for judgment. This followed the adoption of final written addresses and submissions by EFCC counsel Bala Sanga and defense lawyer Michael Ajara.
During the trial, the charges were amended after Nolan, a director in P&ID Ltd and the two companies, jumped bail and fled Nigeria.
The EFCC requested that Nolan be tried in absentia. Nolan was subsequently declared wanted, and an order was issued for his arrest wherever he is found.
In a related case, FHC/ABJ/CR/273/2022, the commission was prosecuting Resorts Express Concept Nigeria Ltd and Corrado Fantoli as the 1st and 2nd defendants, respectively, before Justice Okorowo. Fantoli, another foreign associate of Nolan involved in the $9.6 billion P&ID fraud, was arraigned in absentia on November 25, 2022, on an eight-count money laundering charge.
Fantoli, not present in court and unrepresented by a lawyer during arraignment, was also declared wanted, with an arrest order issued after Sanga’s application. Fantoli and Giovanna Beccarelli, who were also declared wanted, were directors and signatories to the company’s Guaranty Trust Bank account number: 0123849451.
Resorts Express Concept Nigeria Ltd and Trinity Biotech Nigeria Limited are among over 30 companies associated with the $9.6 billion scam. Other related cases are currently before Justices Obiora Egwuatu and Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, as well as charges in FCT High Courts.
Backstory
- On January 31, 2017, a tribunal ruled that Nigeria must compensate P&ID with $6.6 billion in damages, along with pre-and post-judgment interest at a rate of 7%.
- However, in court, federal government lawyers alleged that P&ID executives had used bribery to secure the contract.
- In October 2023, the Business and Property Court in London, presided over by Justice Robin Knowles of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales, quashed the $11 billion award against Nigeria in the P&ID case. Justice Knowles ruled that the award was obtained by fraud and was contrary to public policy.
