The US government has seized a Rockville home belonging to former Bayelsa
governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the U.S. Department of Justice said in
a news release last week Friday May 31.
Feds said
they seized the home because the former governor bought the house using stolen
state money. Alamieyeseigha was ordered to relinquish the $700,000 home on May
24, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.
Fedederal prosecutors claim Alamieyeseigha bought the Rockville property
during his first term as governor “with funds obtained through corruption,
abuse of office, money laundering and other violations of Nigerian and U.S.
law.”
According to ICE, the title to the property was transferred to a shell
corporation controlled by Alamieyeseigha.
Citing federal prosecutors, The Wall Street Journal reported
Friday that Alamieyeseigha bought $8 million in properties around the
globe with bribes he received while he was governor.
Alamieyeseigha, WSJ reported, denied the charges and
offered a very different account than the Justice Department of how the house
came into his possession. The article cites a 2011 affidavit in which
Alamieyeseigha stated:
“I am not unaware of the monkey politics that is played in
third world countries like Nigeria with the active connivance of
over zealous individuals, agencies and government parastals (sic)
touting themselves as global ethics compliance monitors. The civil forfeiture
action which was brought against the defendant property in a quest to
score cheap points as the global watchdog should be dismissed.”
Read The
Wall Street Journal’s story here.
In a news release, Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman said
the seizure was made possible through DOJ’s Kleptocracy Initiative.
“Foreign officials who think they can use the United States as a
stash-house are sorely mistaken,” Raman said in the news release.
Alamieyeseigha pleaded guilty to money laundering and other charges in
2007 - two years after he was impeached - and was sentenced to two years in
prison, The Gazette reported. He was pardoned by
Nigeria’s president in March.
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