A London court has rejected former Nigerian governor James Ibori’s bid to reduce a £101.5 million asset confiscation order imposed on him after his conviction in a corruption case.
The Court of Appeal on Tuesday 3 November rejected the arguments put forward by Ibori’s lawyers. Ibori had appealed seeking to have the order reduced by some £4.3 million.
Ibori, who was governor of Nigeria’s oil-producing Delta State from 1999 to 2007, pleaded guilty to laundering tens of millions of dollars in stolen public funds through British banks and properties. He was convicted in 2012 and served more than four years in jail in Britain.
In 2023, a lower London criminal court ordered that £101.5 million ($136.05 million) of his assets should be confiscated.
The appeal had been holding up the confiscation. It should now go ahead, unless Ibori seeks to appeal to the Supreme Court. Ibori said he was speaking to his lawyers to decide his next steps.
The case has run through the London courts because the money at its centre was moved through British banks and properties — the same London financial system that has featured in other major fraud cases heard in the capital, including a £187,000 passcode scam sentenced at Inner London Crown Court. London’s courts have also recently ruled on an injunction bid involving ITN and the Guardian, dismissed by the High Court on 3 November.
