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Aaron Greenspan
And of course, if you haven't already read David Hundeyin's excellent write-up of who Bola Tinubu is and how he got to this point, you should absolutely take a look. You can find it here: https://westafricaweekly.substack.com/p/bola-ahmed-tinubu-from-drug-lord |
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March 30, 2023 at 11:59 AM EDT •  Reply • ▲0▼ |
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Aaron Greenspan
Oh, and about those impossible-to-find court records from Lagos. The Lagos state judiciary's IT systems are run by a company who name appears on the bottom of its public website called First Hightower Infotech Ltd. You can find their website here: https://www.firsthightowerinfotech.com.
There are a few notable facts about First Hightower. You might assume that it's based in Lagos, Nigeria—but you'd be wrong! First Hightower Infotech Ltd. is in fact based in Bowie, MD, in the United States of America, where another separate corporation called First Hightower InfoTech, Inc. is incorporated in Maryland.
Also, you might think that First Hightower Infotech Ltd. has many clients. But it really just seems to have one: the Lagos state judiciary. It's hard to imagine that anyone else would want to hire a company whose website is full of stock photography and "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" fake text. (On another one of the founder's company's websites, there is in fact text that still reads, "I am text block. Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor..." Yes, really.)
You know who else used to be based in Bowie, MD, of all places? The former governor of Lagos: Bola Tinubu. Here's a map showing how long it takes to drive from his old home (which he has since sold) to the home of the founder of First Hightower: about 10 minutes.
I'm sure it's just a coincidence.
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March 30, 2023 at 11:54 AM EDT • Reply • ▲0▼ |
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Aaron Greenspan
The next interesting fact about Bola Tinubu is that he doesn't appear in the Panama Papers, the Paradise Papers, or the Pandora Papers. He's not even in Bahamas Leaks or Offshore Leaks, as far as I can tell. Why is that? It seems curious for someone who seems to have got his start as an accountant with knowledge of international banking and shell companies. After all, he's been setting them up just about since graduating from college in Chicago.
It's probably because Tinubu has been following the Putin model of money laundering: don't put any of the money in your own name (especially after you've been caught doing that), and make sure to launder a lot through your local oil company. Here's how that works.
First, you find yourself a relative you can trust—say, a niece or a nephew. Someone like Jubril Adewale "Wale" Tinubu. Preferably, that relative has some kind of legitimate business so that if anyone asks how they got so rich, there's a plausible explanation—say, an oil company. Wale Tinubu just happens to run Oando Plc, which describes itself as "one of Africa's largest integrated energy solutions provider with a proud heritage."
Did I mention that Wale Tinubu shows up in the Panama Papers *and* the Paradise Papers *and* the Pandora Papers?
That could mean that Wale is just really fond of setting up shell companies for his own oil riches, and I mean, would you trust your local Nigerian bank with that kind of money? I sure wouldn't. So that might make some sense. But then we get to this other curious fact.
In 2020, Bola Tinubu was sued for using his stake in a company that collected taxes in Lagos state, where he was previously governor—ahem—to siphon off funds to a variety of shell companies. These were Bola Tinubu's funds, to be clear. One of the companies alleged to have been involved in this scheme was "Ocean and Oil Investments Ltd. ("Oando"). Curious, no? You can see the complaint here:  Apara (Infiniti Systems Enterprises) v. Alpha-Beta Consulting LLP et al, High Court of Lagos State Case No. LG/7330GCMW/2020. Sadly, not much else is available because the Lagos judiciary isn't so great about transparency it seems.
So, to sum up, Bola Tinubu has a nephew who runs an oil company and whose oil company's name shows up in a list of companies used to siphon off money from a private corporation in which Tinubu had a stake that had a government contract with Tinubu's government to collect taxes from the Nigerian public that had no idea that any of this was going on. Pretty slick.
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March 30, 2023 at 11:35 AM EDT • Reply • ▲0▼ |
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Aaron Greenspan
The next interesting fact about Bola Tinubu is that a lot of attention has been paid to the 1993 civil forfeiture case involving his First Heritage and certain Citibank bank accounts, but no one has taken much of a look at the 1992 criminal case against the drug dealers who actually sold the heroin that generated the money he laundered. That's because those case files have been buried in the National Archives in Chicago. So with the help of my mother, the amazing Judi Greenspan, who happens to be in Chicago at the moment, we dug them up.
The criminal indictment against Lee Andrew Edwards from 1992 is now posted for the first time here: United States of America v. Edwards et al, Indiana Northern District Court Case No. 2:92-cr-00113-RL
And a bunch of the criminal trial transcripts, which made their way to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, are posted as attachments under Document 28 here: USA v. Edwards, Lee Andrew, Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Case No. 94-3307
Those transcripts reference "Abi" a few times, who is described at various points as Nigerian or African. Abi is Abidoun Agbele, who was the supposed nephew of Mueez Adegboyega Akande, who was Bola Tinubu's partner in crime. |
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March 30, 2023 at 11:17 AM EDT • Reply • ▲0▼ |
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Aaron Greenspan
So I'm just going to start posting some interesting facts about Bola Tinubu. The first interesting fact is that virtually every article discussing the seizure of funds from Mr. Tinubu's bank accounts has it wrong: the sum seized was not $460,000 USD. That's just the amount that was seized in one particular case that somehow managed to make it onto PACER (the federal courts' database system) despite being filed in the early 1990s. That case is here: USA v. Acct 263226700, et al, Illinois Northern District Court Case No. 1:93-cv-04483. The other two seizure warrant cases are not on PACER at all. At the moment we don't even know their case numbers. One is in the Northern District of Illinois and the other is in the Southern District of New York.
If you total all of the money in Mr. Tinubu's name seized by the U.S. Government around that time period, 1992-1993, the total comes to about $1.95 million, or $1.4 million + $550,000. Of that amount, Tinubu was allowed to keep $1.5 million, and $460,000 was destroyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Let's get the basic math right to begin with, shall we? (I'm working on finding those other seizure warrant documents.)
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March 30, 2023 at 11:08 AM EDT • Reply • ▲0▼ |
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Aaron Greenspan
I'm not sure what it means to be the "self-named" daughter of someone, but whoever she is, Ms. Aderonke is technically correct. Bola Tinubu was not a drug dealer per se. He was a money launderer for drug dealers. Were he an American, would have been criminally charged and sent to prison for at least a decade and possibly several.
A distinction without a difference. |
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March 27, 2023 at 10:46 AM EDT • Reply • ▲0▼ |
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Aaron Greenspan
Wow.
Wow wow wow.
USA v. Fahie et al, Florida Southern District Court Case No. 1:22-mj-02719-JG
Wow. |
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April 29, 2022 at 3:27 AM EDT • Reply • ▲0▼ |
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