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US indicts Atiku’s wife in corruption scandal: We’re innocent - Atiku insists
LANRE ADEWOLE, Abuja - 24.05.2006
VICE-PRESIDENT Atiku Abubakar’s wife, Jennifer, has been indicted in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe of US Congressman, William Jefferson, over bribery involving a transnational tele-communications deal. Jennifer resides in the Potomac, Maryland home of Atiku which was raided on August 3, 2005, by the FBI in connection with the bribery investigation.
In a report on Tuesday, the FBI revealed that a taped conversation between Jefferson and a wired Mody saw the embattled American lawmaker describing Jennifer as a “front”. Jefferson told Mody that the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Gede Foundation, being operated in Washington by Jennifer, was a front, being used to channel illegal funds by the Atiku family.
Gede Foundation, according to the founder, was to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The affidavit recently unsealed by the FBI on the investigation also quoted Jefferson as describing Atiku Abubakar as “a businessman who has more deals than the man in the moon and he’s a very well, the word might be... corrupt”.
The part of the detailed affidavit entitled “Dinner conversation”, says that; “Through Brett Pfeffer, a former aide to Jefferson who pleaded guilty in January, a dinner meeting was set up between Mody and the congressman. They decided to go ahead with the iGate deal in Nigeria. But first, Jefferson told Mody, a key palm needed to be greased.
“In a recorded conversation, Jefferson said that a top Nigerian official was scheduled to arrive in Washington shortly. Jefferson described him as a businessman “who has more deals than the man in the moon” and “he’s a very well, the word might be... corrupt.” The official, Jefferson later said, could be bribed by funnelling money through a charitable foundation run by the official’s wife, which Jefferson called a “front”.
“The official’s name is shown from the search warrant affidavit, but it is believed to be Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar, whose Maryland home was also raided in August by the FBI. His wife, Jennifer, operates an AIDS foundation in Washington D.C. “Jefferson later told Mody that the unnamed official demanded 50 per cent of profits from a joint venture launched in Nigeria and would probably need $500,000 upfront, $100,000 of which was in the briefcase she handed to Jefferson three months later.”
The vice-president had denied doing any deals with Jefferson, though there was a meeting between them shortly after Jefferson reportedly collected part of the bribe money, he claimed was meant for Atiku. The FBI search of Jefferson home revealed that the money had not been passed across to the vice president.
Mody was used by the FBI to investigate the scam, after she was denied access to the rights to iGate’s technology despite paying $3.5 million for it. She subsequently reported to the FBI, who wired her for the latter part of her business relationship with Jefferson. The FBI had also detailed another Nigerian company called Netlink, known as NDTV for probe, over the iGate deals scam.
Netlink was fingered as the company that agreed to finance iGate’s business before Mody entered the scene. According to the affidavit; “the FBI detailed one deal involving a Nigerian company called Netlink, known as NDTV, which had agreed to finance iGate’s business before Mody entered the scene. “The deal is significant because it introduces another cooperating witness besides Mody,” with first hand knowledge of the transaction. The witness told the FBI that Jefferson demanded $5 per subscriber for the broadband service in Nigeria.
“But in early 2004, NDTV pulled out of the deal and sought its $6.5 million investment back. The company hired attorneys in the United States and they wrote to Jefferson suggesting that he had violated criminal and civil laws in Nigeria. “I have also attached a list of your bank accounts through which you insisted money be paid (which it was) to you in relation to the iGate/NDTV transaction,” the lawyer wrote.
Reacting to the new development, the vice-president restated his innocence and that of his entire family in the saga. Speaking through his media aide, Shehu Garba, the vice-president urged Nigerians to wait till the end of the investigations before passing judgement. Nigerian Tribune was told on phone that; “the vice-president and his family have not done anything wrong. By the time investigations are concluded, the facts would be known and his innocence would be shown to the Nigerian public.”
When prodded to react to the specific allegations, Garba said that he would not add anything to the recent defence put up for the second family.
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