London, and the money laundering prevention authorities there, have a great deal of hard work to do if they want to convince Britons that the prevention of corruption and the theft of billions are objectives rather than no nos.
A report in the London newspaper the Guardian, details the dirty and criminal manoeuvring that went on so that giant oil companies could secure a huge offshore block of Nigerian oil.
The report in question does not hesitate to name the oil interests involved and the details of this huge dirty deal.
It is stated that the international bank JP Morgan processed two payments of 400 million dollars for the credit of a convicted Nigerian money launderer. Quite open then. No nonsense about “We had no idea”. So what happened then? Apparently nothing. The money laundering authorities in London seemingly did not notice these suspicious transactions and no overt action appears to have been taken against anyone involved, including two ex-employees of the SIS.
Why not? All concerned should have their collars felt and required to furnish explanations; if they can. Even more relevantly the UK government owe us all a full explanation as to why and how this perversion of justice was allowed to happen. In particular the City of London and its banking community need to explain how and why this happened and the government authorities responsible need to explain why the money laundering authorities took no action.
Nigeria, a former colony, has many and profound links with the business community in London and if there is any rationale at all to this dirty business it is to be found in the fact that the commercial interests in question have a disproportionate influence on what happens when criminal activity comes to light.
When, and if, the British government chooses to make any statement on all this murky affair it could with advantage come clean as well on the reasons why it is still supporting the mega criminal Najib Razak who has stolen even more money from his country than the Nigerian thieves referred to above.