There appears to be no respite for Nigerian officials involved in Halliburton and Siemens bribery scandal as a Swiss Court has ordered the handover of details of bank accounts to United Kingdom(UK) authorities investigating a $180million bribery scam in Nigeria.
The development is coming a day after the Attorney General of the Federation(AGF) Michael Andoakaa (SAN) left Nigeria for Washington, United States of America (USA) to enlist the assistance of the country to unveil Nigerians named in the Halliburton bribery scandal for prosecution by the Federal Government.
It is also coming less than two weeks after former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, told British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) that his vice, Atiku Abubakar has questions to answer on the bribery scandal .
Agency reports said court in a ruling published yesterday, Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Tribunal rejected an appeal lodged by an unnamed U.K. citizen who was suspected of taking part in money laundering and corruption.
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office had asked for Swiss legal assistance three years ago while investigating a consortium of French, Italian, Japanese and U.S. firms, according to the ruling dated February 29.
The companies, which were not named, allegedly commissioned the Briton to use his influence with Nigerian officials to secure contracts for a $6-billion gas pipeline complex between 1995 and 2004.
He was paid about $60 million through banks in Monaco and Switzerland, court documents alleged.
In all, about $133.5 in bribes were paid through a network of front companies in the Bahamas, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Panama, Seychelles and the Turks and Caicos islands, they said.
A Geneva magistrate had originally granted the legal assistance in July 2008.
Maurice Harari, the U.K. defendant’s legal counsel, told the Swiss news agency ATS that he wouldn’t make a final appeal against the ruling.
It would be recalled that the Senate had recently set up a committee to probe the Halliburton bribery scandal..The AGF had before departing the country written to US government soliciting her help to get the details of those involved in the scam.