Sani Abacha’s son, Abba Abacha, was missing from a Swiss court Monday that was to hear his appeal of a lower court ruling ordering the return of $350 million plundered from Nigeria’s assets. The ruling issued in 2009 also found him guilty of involvement in a criminal organization and issued a suspended prison term. The family is believed to have siphoned some $3 billion while Sani Abacha was power between 1993 and 1998.
Abacha's lawyer, Pierre de Preux, said his client applied for a Swiss visa in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Wednesday, but was told by the Swiss embassy that issuing a visa would take at least ten days.
Abacha, 41, is ready to come and explain himself, de Preux said. “This is not a simple traffic offense case,” he told journalists, adding that he would ask the court to set a new date for the hearing.
Lawyer David Bitton, who is representing Nigeria, described the defense tactics as crass: “They are trying to buy themselves an acquittal request.”
A trial can still take place in Abacha’s absence, however.
Nigerian authorities had sought Swiss help in repatriating the stolen money that ended up in Swiss bank accounts. The money had been spirited out of the country, according to testimony, by straightforward pillaging of the Nigeria Central Bank – in some cases palettes of banknotes were delivered to the general’s home – to more sophisticated practices like embezzling public funds, fraudulent vaccination programs or pocketing money from foreign firms working in the country.
Abba Abacha, the court heard, had used false identities and passports to open over 30 bank accounts from 1996 onwards in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and the Bahamas to stash his father and relatives’ money.
In the inquiry he claimed he had acted at the request of his brother, Mohammed, who was behind the affairs, without knowing that it was illegal to use false names for banking transactions.
Since Switzerland started the investigation in 1999, officials have recovered about $700 million, paid back to Nigeria in installments.
Nearly the entire international banking community appears to have had some role in hiding the Abacha monies. In a 2002 report, the Swiss Federal Banking Commission said 19 banks had dealings with Abacha and did not report suspicions of money laundering to the Swiss authorities.
Six banks - three branches of Crédit Suisse Plus, Crédit Agricole Indosuez, Union Bancaire Privée and MM Warburg - were singled out for failing to run adequate checks on new accounts, including those opened by Gen. Abacha's two sons.
“The mere fact that significant assets of dubious origin, from people close to former Nigerian President Sani Abacha, were deposited at Swiss banks is highly unsatisfactory and damages the image of Switzerland as a financial centre," Banking Commission chairman Kurt Hauri said in 2002 after a 10-month investigation.
The commission said that almost a third of the Abacha money deposited with Swiss banks had first been banked in the UK, United States and Austria.
The hearing is set to resume on Tuesday despite Abacha’s request for a postponement.
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