SAN FRANCISCO, April 28, (THEWILL) – Nigeria is seeking documents from 10 banks, including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., to overturn a $9.6 billion arbitration award related to a business deal that the country contends is shrouded in allegations of corruption.
Nigeria has asked a federal court in New York for permission to subpoena information about transactions involving former President Goodluck Jonathan and other government officials who were in office when the state signed a contract with Process & Industrial Developments Ltd., and later became involved in a dispute with the company.
“There is good reason to believe that ministers at the highest level were involved in a corrupt scheme to steal money from Nigeria,” Attorney General Abubakar Malami said in court filings submitted on March 24.
Nigeria’s chances of annulling the giant penalty is based on its ability to prove that the 2010 gas supply arrangement was a sham designed to fail by P&ID and government officials.
The saga became a full-blown crisis for Nigeria last August when a U.K. judge ruled P&ID could enforce an arbitration tribunal’s 2017 ruling, now totaling $9.6 billion including interest, which found the country breached the agreement.
Nigeria is therefore seeking the bank documents as part of an internal investigation into the contract and the arbitration proceedings. The findings will form the basis of the U.K. appeal.
P&ID “had no ability or intention of ever performing” the contract, which required the company to build a gas processing plant and the government to supply it, Malami said.
Nigeria wants the U.S. court’s permission to obtain information from the banks relating to companies and individuals affiliated with P&ID, as well as former government officials, to aid the ongoing investigation by the country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The 10 institutions are likely to have processed U.S. dollar transactions connected to P&ID’s operations, as either correspondent banks or the New York branches of foreign lenders, the filings said.
U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield allowed Nigeria to send copies of its application to the banks, eight of which had been served by April 15, according to filings. The court, however, hasn’t decided whether to give Nigeria access to the financial documents.
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