Alison-Madueke: US moves to seize Aluko, Omokore’s assets

Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore, two Nigerian oil businessmen that are facing several fraud charges by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission are in trouble in the United States.

According to News Agency of Nigeria, the U.S. Justice Department on Friday filed a lawsuit seeking to recover assets that include a $50 million Manhattan apartment and an $80 million yacht, The Galactica, that it said were bought using money generated from a scheme to pay millions of dollars in bribes to a former Nigerian oil minister.

The civil lawsuit, filed in federal court in Houston, alleged that the two Nigerian businessmen conspired with others to pay bribes to the minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who oversaw Nigeria’s state-owned oil company, the NNPC.

The lawsuit said that in return, Alison-Madueke steered lucrative contracts with a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to companies owned by the two businessmen, Kolawole Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore.