The United States may stop the return of monies stolen by Nigerian leaders to the country, including the so-called ‘Abacha Loot’, with President Donald Trump directing the country’s Department of Justice (DOJ) to disband teams working on such anti-corruption cases.
The US Department of Justice will now refocus much of its staff and resources on the “total elimination” of drug cartels and transnational criminal organisations in the US while disbanding units dedicated to prosecuting white-collar crime and kleptocrats and tracking foreign efforts to influence US elections, the Voice of America (VOA) reported.
Checks by THISDAY showed that the US government has repatriated several tranches of funds stolen by former Nigerian military ruler, Sani Abacha, and hidden in foreign accounts. These funds, often referred to as “Abacha loot,” were laundered through banks in the US, Europe, and other jurisdictions.
After Abacha’s death in 1998, investigations revealed that he and his associates had embezzled billions from Nigeria, even as the DOJ pursued legal cases to recover and repatriate the stolen assets.
In all, over $700 million has been recovered and returned by the US and other foreign governments since 1999. Additional funds remain under investigation and legal proceedings.
However, the change, announced in a set of memos issued in the outgone week by newly sworn-in Attorney General, Pam Bondi, is part of a major reorientation of a department that Trump says has been “weaponised” against him since the end of his first term in office, the VOA report said.
In a memo issued on her first day in office, Bondi outlined moves to do away with specific units in the department. Among those eliminated were two dedicated to targeting kleptocrats — public figures who use their authority to steal resources from their own people.
The Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, established in 2010, worked to identify the assets of kleptocrats, seize them and return them to the countries from which they were stolen.
Task Force KleptoCapture, a separate unit, was formed in early 2022 in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The unit targeted oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and enforced sanctions against Russia by the US and its allies after the invasion.
“Attorneys assigned to those initiatives shall return to their prior posts,” Bondi’s memo said, “and resources currently devoted to those efforts shall be committed to the total elimination of cartels and Transnational Crime Organisations (TCOs),” she added.
The Criminal Division’s unit focused on bringing prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, she said, “shall prioritise investigations related to foreign bribery that facilitates the criminal operations of cartels and TCOs, and shift focus away from investigations and cases that do not involve such a connection.”
Prosecutions under the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act were also redirected under the new instructions.
But anti-corruption groups have expressed concern, with Gary Kalman, the Executive Director of Transparency International (AI) US, telling VOA that the changes to DOJ priorities could have dire consequences for the global fight against public corruption.
“The elimination of kleptocracy initiatives is a concern in that those initiatives were providing valuable coordination and information-sharing services amongst different departments and with some of our overseas allies,” Kalman said.
“Those networks had some encouraging results and enabled investigations to move more quickly,” he said. “Dismantling those programs will likely have a negative effect on our ability to investigate and prosecute cases,” Kalman added.
In a separate memo, Bondi revealed that the DOJ will also disband the Foreign Influence Task Force, established in 2017 to investigate efforts by state actors, such as Russia and China, to influence U.S. public opinion, particularly around elections.
Trump has been highly critical of efforts by law enforcement to identify and root out foreign interference in U.S. elections, especially after a report by special counsel Robert Mueller, in 2019, found extensive evidence that Russian influence operations had been mounted to benefit Trump’s candidacy during the 2016 presidential election.
In her memo, Bondi wrote, “To free resources to address more pressing priorities, and end risks of further weaponisation and abuses of prosecutorial discretion, the Foreign Influence Task Force shall be disbanded.”
She called for a “fundamental change in mindset and approach” when it comes to combating drug cartels.
