Nigerian businessman Louis Emovbira Williams was granted permission to withdraw $21 million from Nigeria’s bank account with JP Morgan, used to store funds from crude oil sales to foreign entities. Williams was swindled of $6.5 million by the Nigerian government over a food importation business deal in 1986. He was tortured and tried for “economic sabotage” after returning to Nigeria.
In 1993, he received a presidential pardon and a “Fidelity Guarantee and Abiding Memorandum of Understanding of Assurance” for payment of $6.5 million at 17 per cent compound interest on a rollover basis since 1986 and N5 million including a 25 per cent compound interest.
However, the payment never came. In 2018, Justice Mary Clare Moulder of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in the UK okayed the seizure of $21,231,960.74 and £19,763.130 from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s account domiciled in JP Morgan.
