Over the three years Mr Dasuki was in office, ONSAmade several transfers of millions of dollars to the couple's bank accounts.
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PREMIUM TIMES, in collaboration with the Washington Post, retraced some of the key financial dealings between Mr Dasuki’s office and the Oshodins and, as the EFCC has alleged, their investment of public funds in mansions near Hollywood and the White House.Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you.
Nigerian bank records and property deeds from California show that the $7.7 million wire transfer to the US outlined in the Oshodin indictment took place within days of the couple buying a $9.5 million historic mansion in Los Angeles, California, in cash.Within four days of acquiring the property known as the Dorothy Chandler Estate, which features six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, the couple spent $6.
Trial judge John Tsoho, now chief justice of the FHC, said the EFCC had “shown prima facie that the properties in the USA are proceeds of unlawful activity,” but he ruled in favour of the Oshodins, mainly because the properties were not within Nigerian jurisdiction. To this day, the couple owns properties in Los Angeles and McLean valued at $20 million, including the historic mansion near Hollywood that the EFCC tried to confiscate.
Between 2008 and 2012, when Mr Dasuki was appointed NSA, the couple spent a total of about $1.6 million on five properties in the western American states of California and Nevada. For their most expensive property in California, an $800,000 flat near Los Angeles, they obtained a 30-year bank loan covering half the purchase price. The couple also obtained a separate loan from an individual, though documents do not specify the terms.
As the EFCC has documented, in mid-2014, their investment firm, 1812 Corporation, purchased two mansions for $16 million in cash within days of Mr Dasuki’s office wiring them the equivalent of about $20 million. Some of the other property investments also appear to correlate with bank transfers. A week after Mr Buhari sacked Mr Dasuki, the 1812 Corporation transferred ownership of the “Dorothy Chandler Estate,” the couple’s most valuable home, into a legal mechanism called a living trust. Several weeks after Mr Dasuki was arraigned in Abuja, the Oshodins transferred ownership of two other high-value properties from 1812 Corporation into the same living trust.
The EFCC, the Oshodins’ lawyer, Mr Dasuki’s lawyer and the US Department of Justice declined to comment when contacted. Mr Dasuki’s lawyer, Ahmed Raji, said he would not comment because “Dasuki’s matters are subjudice. Matters pending in court are not open to debate till the court has finished its job.” The Oshodin’s lawyer, Osahon Idemudia, also declined to comment when contacted by The Post. Mimie Oshodin did not also respond to an email sent to her.
Sworn depositions and other filings to the superior court and a California court of appeals painstakingly detail the couple’s considerable wealth and their lifestyle. PREMIUM TIMES calculated that between their American property holdings and valuables identified in the court filings, the couple’s wealth exceeded $40 million at the end of Mr Dasuki’s tenure.
An excerpt from a document filed in a California court showing items of jewelry the Oshodin couple alleges was stolen from their Los Angeles estate. While plaintiffs may exaggerate their claims when seeking damages in court, this “colossal” loss would constitute a small fraction of what the Oshodin couple spent in a week on US real estate five years later.
Another chapter in the EFCC case shows the close relationship between the two families. According to a US court filing that summarises elements of the EFCC’s investigation and which PREMIUM TIMES separately confirmed with materials from the agency, a few weeks after the ONSA transferred funds to the Oshodins in December 2013, they wired a portion of the funds to a construction company.
But, as former leading FBI international corruption investigator Debra LaPrevotte told PREMIUM TIMES, “hen people are stealing money, the first thing they want to do is get it out of their country.” So, why does a country like the US, which Transparency International rates among the world’s least corrupt countries, seemingly welcome these funds, including at the doorstep of the White House?
“The details of this case serve as a textbook example of where there are loopholes and gaps in our laws, starting with the real estate sector,” Mr Kalman said. He also found it noteworthy that when the Oshodin couple moved the funds to the US to buy their two most expensive properties in mid-2014, they sent the money to an escrow company in California and an attorney in Virginia.
The attorneys spoke with EFCC agents and then introduced much of the evidence related to the EFCC’s investigation into the record in California. Not long after that contact, an EFCC agent sent a message to the US Department of Justice about the Oshodin case. After providing a summary of the facts, the agent ended with a plea: “It is our humble request you trace the money with a view to blocking it pls .
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