Reply #21: ??? .....11/7/06

[Buttercup McToots]

http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/cover/november06/07112006/f407112006.html

Presidency denies money laundering allegation against Uba
By Jide Ajani, Political Editor & Rotimi Ajayi
Posted to the Web: Tuesday, November 07, 2006



ABUJA— THE Presidency dismissed, yesterday, the allegations of money laundering and corruption against the Senior Special Assistant (Special Duties) to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Mr Emmanuel Nnamdi (Andy) Uba, as gross distortion of facts. The Political Adviser to President Obasanjo, Bashorun Akin Osuntokun, said in Abuja that there was nothing to the reports.

Investigations by the US secret service suggested that the sum of $170,000 (about N25 million at the time) was smuggled into New York on September 22, 2003 by Andy Uba aboard the Nigerian presidential plane, without a report to US customs and border protection as legally required.Uba allegedly handed the money to one Loretta Mabinton, who claimed in court documents that the presidential aide was her fiancéé, and that he gave her the money to take care of his affairs in the US.Part of the money, $45,487.28 (about N6.5 million), was said to have been used to pay Mabinton’s MBNA credit card account, which was deployed to purchase assorted farm equipment that were shipped to Obasanjo Farms in Otta, Ogun State.

The report also quoted a secret service report which it said equally said $91,262.50 (about N12.9 million) was used to purchase a Mercedes Benz car SL500 for Uba, which was to be shipped to Nigeria.The car, and the remainder of the laundered funds, have now been ordered seized by the US District Court of Oregon, being proceeds of bulk cash smuggling, violations of currency and monetary instrument reporting requirements, currency transaction reporting requirements, and money laundering.Loretta Mabinton, the report alleged, had confessed to the US law enforcement agents that she flew into New York on September 22, 2003 and received $170,000 from Uba while he was at the United Nations Plaza Hotel.

The latter had accompanied President Obasanjo to New York to attend a meeting of the United Nations. US law enforcement agents also indicated that the Service’s Atlanta field office had listed Andy Uba as a previous subject of an Advance Fee Fraud (419) investigation, and that the $170,000 was not wired into Mabinton’s accounts because it would have brought attention to numerous other past suspicious transactions.

A United State District Court of Portland, Oregon was reported to have seized large sum of foreign currency from Mr Uba who was alleged to have smuggled the money into the United State using the Presidential jet.

But speaking to Vanguard in Abuja yesterday, Basorun Osuntokun dismissed the allegations as unfounded.He said: “I can assure you that there is no substance to the report. Whatever was reported is grossly distorted and exaggerated.”