Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by Penguin2: 8:14am On May 02, 2023 |
The son of the President-Elect of Nigeria, Oluwaseyi Tinubu’s company is being reported to be enmeshed in an $11million London property scandal; as reported by Bloomberg Africa. A firm belonging to the son of Nigeria’s president-elect bought an $11 million London mansion that his predecessor’s government was seeking to confiscate as part of a probe into one of the biggest corruption scandals in the West African nation’s history, according to previously unreported UK company documents.
There’s no suggestion that President-elect Bola Tinubu was personally involved in the acquisition of the UK property in 2017. Current President Muhammadu Buhari visited him there in August 2021, nearly four years after the purchase took place. Tinubu, who will take over as head of state this month, has long been questioned about the source of his family’s wealth, including throughout the recent election campaign, when he and his representatives were pressed about it by local and international media.
He and his campaign have said he made his fortune before going into politics by inheriting real estate, investing well and working as an accountant at Deloitte LLP and an executive at the Nigerian subsidiary of Mobil Oil in the 1980s and early 1990s. In an interview with the BBC in the run-up to the election, Tinubu cited Warren Buffett as an example he followed to become rich.
The corporate documents seen by Bloomberg show for the first time that Tinubu’s 37-year-old son Oluwaseyi is the main shareholder of Aranda Overseas Corp., an offshore company that paid £9 million ($10.8 million) to Deutsche Bank for the property in north London in late 2017. The private three-floor residence in St. John’s Wood — a district favored by American bankers — is equipped with an eight-car driveway, two gardens, electric gates and a gym.
Bola Tinubu’s spokesman and Oluwaseyi Tinubu did not respond to emails, phone calls and text messages seeking comment. A British lawyer listed as Aranda’s agent in the UK declined to comment citing confidentiality rules.
At the time of the purchase, Nigeria’s government was seeking to arrest the house’s former owner, accusing him of going on the run while owing the country an oil-trading debt worth more than $1.5 billion. The state was also attempting to confiscate the upscale real estate and other assets it suspected had been acquired by the businessman — Kolawole Aluko — with the profits of crime. Aluko denies all allegations of wrongdoing and says a court judgment earlier this year acquitting a former business partner has cleared his name. That ruling is being challenged by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency.
Tinubu, 71, won an election in February as the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress and is scheduled to succeed his political ally Buhari on May 29. He was a key powerbroker in the merger of opposition parties that brought the current head of state to office in 2015.
While Buhari was elected on a pledge to tackle widespread graft, the country’s ranking in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index has deteriorated over the past eight years.
Buhari Visit
A former governor of Lagos state, Tinubu has long been dogged by allegations of graft and rule-breaking, which he denies. In 1993, he forfeited $460,000 to resolve a lawsuit in Chicago after US federal authorities said that bank accounts in his name held the proceeds of heroin trafficking. Tinubu’s lawyers have said he was never charged over the matter.
While staying at the 7,000-square foot London home in August 2021, Tinubu received a visit from Buhari there, according to the Lagos-based Premium Times.
The online newspaper — using documents obtained from the Pandora Papers leak of offshore companies data — revealed that the shareholders and directors of Aranda from its formation 24 years ago until at least 2010 were Adegboyega Oyetola, the former governor of Osun state, and Elusanmi Eludoyin, head of a Nigerian property group. Oyetola’s spokesman and Eludoyin did not respond to requests for comment.
Documents filed this year in response to new anti-money laundering rules in the UK and seen by Bloomberg show that Tinubu’s son — an entrepreneur active in advertising who played a prominent role in his father’s presidential campaign — has been in control of British Virgin Islands-registered Aranda since June 2011. The company registered as an overseas entity in the UK on Jan. 20.
Aluko Allegations
Early in Buhari’s first term, his administration initiated legal cases against Diezani Alison-Madueke, who served as oil minister for five years until 2015, and two businessmen — Aluko and Olajide Omokore — who won lucrative contracts during her tenure. The US government said in a 2017 forfeiture lawsuit filed in Texas that the pair bribed the minister by funding her “lavish” lifestyle and failed to pay the state energy company for most of the crude they received.
Alison-Madueke, who is based in London, has denied the allegations. She is challenging multiple forfeiture orders issued by Nigerian courts and has accused the anti-corruption agency of blocking her efforts to defend herself in criminal proceedings.
In June 2016, a federal judge in the capital, Abuja, granted a request by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to seize more than a dozen properties that Aluko had acquired in Nigeria and abroad, including the one in St. John’s Wood. That forfeiture order was still in force when Tinubu’s son bought the house out of receivership 16 months later.
The ruling was made on an interim basis pending the conclusion of an investigation into Aluko that was still ongoing as of at least the end of 2018, according to court filings. Aluko can’t comment on the forfeiture case because it is still “sub-judice,” his lawyer Tokunbo Jaiye-Agoro said by email.
Deutsche Bank had foreclosed on the house and appointed receivers to sell it in late 2016, though there is no indication in court filings that the Nigerian government was aware the lender had taken over the house from Aluko as it proceeded with the seizure process. Aluko took out loans using other properties as collateral, according to the US Justice Department.
The EFCC said the buildings “were suspected to have been purchased with the proceeds of crime” and Aluko “fled the country” to avoid answering the fraud allegations against him, according to court filings.
Omokore was acquitted in February by a Nigerian court of charges related to the same allegations. The EFCC – which accuses him of defrauding the state energy firm of $1.6 billion – has said it will appeal. The judge removed Aluko and Alison-Madueke from the indictment because they were not in the country. Aluko’s location is unknown.
The acquittal of Omokore “puts to rest all the false allegations” about his and Aluko’s wealth, according to Jaiye-Agoro. Despite the appeal, “the current state of affairs” is that Aluko’s income was “legitimate and not from any corrupt practice,” Jaiye-Agoro said.
Omokore “objects to the continuous link of his name to any corrupt practices,” his lawyer, Rafiu Lawal-Rabana, said by text message. The court decision earlier this year discharged Omokore on all counts and any hitches in the implementation of the oil contracts were “purely technical not criminal,” he said.
Buhari’s spokesman and Alison-Madueke’s lawyer declined to comment. Spokespeople for Attorney General Abubakar Malami, the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd. and the EFCC did not respond to requests for comment.
Yachts, Penthouses
In October 2017, as the government that Tinubu played an instrumental role in bringing to power was chasing Aluko and his assets, his son’s company bought one of the targeted properties. Aranda still owns the building and there is currently no mortgage registered to it, according to the UK land records.
The firm didn’t purchase the house directly from Aluko, but from a UK unit of Deutsche Bank AG that held a mortgage on the property and had appointed receivers to sell it a year earlier. Aluko acquired the mansion via a BVI company in 2013 and, according to Premium Times, paid £11.95 million. Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
Aluko has no knowledge of Aranda or the individuals behind the company and “was not privy to the sale” as the bank had foreclosed on the house, Jaiye-Agoro said. The UK’s National Crime Agency did not respond to questions about whether it had ever received a request from the Nigerian authorities to freeze the property. The UK Home Office declined to comment.
The US Justice Department announced on March 27 that it has recovered more than $53 million by confiscating assets bought by Aluko for more than $160 million with what it considers to be the proceeds of corruption — including a 65-meter superyacht and luxury https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-02/a-1-8-billion-oil-probe-a-london-mansion-and-nigeria-s-next-president?srnd=politics-vp 24 Likes 6 Shares
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Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by EKONGKING: 8:14am On May 02, 2023 |
Since the property is in U.K , if any fraud is committed then U.K government will investigate and prosecute Tinubu son. Since the opposition especially obidients do not trust Nigerian law system, it's there chance to nail tinubu in British courts ![wink](https://www.nairaland.com/faces/wink.png) 185 Likes 21 Shares |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by taylor88(m): 8:15am On May 02, 2023 |
Which kind twist of headline be this?
Tinubu son bought $11m property with stolen Nigerian fund
You dey go write another thing
If it was obi now una for change the headline for worse
I said it here yesterday how a man who left office over a decade was able to attain billionaire in dollars title
They attacked me, now tell me what’s Seyi occupation to acquire $11million property
Nigerians una don enter one chance with a criminal family called Tinubu 555 Likes 39 Shares |
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Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by taylor88(m): 8:15am On May 02, 2023 |
EKONGKING: Ok Papa never enter office pikin don dey steal millions of dollars that his online miscreants never see before
All of you defending Tinubu which of una can boast of $1million?
Tinubu is a mad cocaine sniffer
A urinating machine that should be hanged on live TV
I spit on his head 382 Likes 29 Shares |
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Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by HIGHESTPOPORI(m): 8:19am On May 02, 2023 |
Corrupt people everywhere 167 Likes 9 Shares |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by TUANKU(m): 8:19am On May 02, 2023 |
Nigeria. 9 Likes |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by othermen: 8:21am On May 02, 2023 |
Our own Hunter Biden. 28 Likes |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by helinues: 8:23am On May 02, 2023 |
No be this same op created a thread about interpol looking for Adamawa REC which he ran away after his ignorance was cured.
Why do some of you people like to embark in futility exercise. Make una be productive with una time so that you can be useful to your community 163 Likes 5 Shares |
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Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by helinues: 8:27am On May 02, 2023 |
EKONGKING: Since the property is in U.K , if any fraud is committed then U.K government will investigate and prosecute Tinubu son.
Since the opposition especially obidients do not trust Nigerian law system, it's there chance to nail tinubu in British courts ![wink](https://www.nairaland.com/faces/wink.png) Those people are behaving like Shakahola cult group in Kenya. Some of them have just stopped making use of their free gifted senses, they can't even reason things logically before rushing to post the jargons online. Just yesterday, imagine this same op posting Interpol are looking for Adamawa REC, abeg what's the business of Interpol with Nigeria election? That's how shallow some of them have been reasoning lately 160 Likes 6 Shares |
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Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by Majesty7: 8:29am On May 02, 2023 |
Penguin2: The son of the President-Elect of Nigeria, Oluwaseyi Tinubu’s company is being reported to be enmeshed in an $11million London property scandal; as reported by Bloomberg Africa.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-02/a-1-8-billion-oil-probe-a-london-mansion-and-nigeria-s-next-president?srnd=politics-vp
Mynd44 Nlfpmod So was the property listed for sale? So because the property was once owned by someone involved in fraud the property should be burnt? Now buying property is now a crime? What should be investigated is that if the fund used to buy the property is fraudulent. If not, then go to hell. If EFCC list a building for sale and I bought it. Does that means I did wrong because the house was once seized due to fraud? 84 Likes 13 Shares |
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Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by Penguin2: 8:31am On May 02, 2023 |
helinues: No be this same op created a thread about interpol looking for Adamawa REC which he ran away after his ignorance was cured.
Why do some of you people like to embark in futility exercise. Make una be productive with una time so that you can be useful to your community I posted a news piece as reported by Peoples Gazette and you say I misinformed? Take that to Peoples Gazette. About Tinubu, I’ve told you that I’m a man principle and I don’t care if Tinubu rules Nigeria for 8 years, I will always be here to remind the world that he’s a criminal, a drug baron, a liar, and represents everything wrong in a society; that he’s the worst of us who got to where he is through establishment of a criminal structure. Prepare to have me around for a long time holding Tinubu’s scrotum. Now, can you tell Nigerians how Seyi Tinubu made $11million dollars to buy a property in London? 262 Likes 29 Shares |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by IVORY2009(m): 8:31am On May 02, 2023 |
Corruption fighting back 5 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by paramakina202: 8:32am On May 02, 2023 |
Lagos state money. 60 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by Penguin2: 8:33am On May 02, 2023 |
Majesty7:
So was the property listed for sale? Do because the property was once owned by someone involved in fraud the property should be burnt?
Now buying property is now a crime? What should be investigated is that if the fund used to buy the property is fraudulent. If not, then go to hell.
If EFCC list a building for sale and I bought it. Does that means I did wrong because the house was once seized due to fraud? Can you tell us, and the world, how Seyi Tinubu made $11million that he used in purchase of the company? 171 Likes 18 Shares |
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Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by helinues: 8:35am On May 02, 2023 |
Penguin2:
I posted a news piece as reported by Peoples Gazette and you say I misinformed? Take that to Peoples Gazette.
About Tinubu, I’ve told you that I’m a man principle and I don’t care if Tinubu rules Nigeria for 8 years, I will always be here to remind the world that he’s a criminal, a drug baron, a liar, and represents everything wrong in a society; that he’s the worst of us who got to where he is through establishment of a criminal structure.
Prepare to have me around for a long time holding Tinubu’s scrotum.
Now, can you tell Nigerians how Seyi Tinubu made $11million dollars to buy a property in London? Are you not the person who always claiming penguin the wise of bird bla bla. So you couldn't read the news and comprehend it before posting it on NL. I thought you claimed you are exposed? Interpol looking for Adamawa REC like wtf Can you tell Nigerians how Buhari resurrected while Jubril was repatriated back to Sudan? Same logic question 160 Likes 9 Shares |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by plaindealer: 8:37am On May 02, 2023 |
A legitimate company bought a house legitimately so what is the problem? Do, you pandora people not have anything better to do with your meaningful time as usual? The election is over, you lost woefully, but you are still laboring in vain. Poor pandora and his minions.. ![grin](https://www.nairaland.com/faces/grin.png) 156 Likes 10 Shares
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Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by Xscape1993(m): 8:37am On May 02, 2023 |
The worse is even yet to come out. Expect more surprises as the drug landlord of Africa and the founder of agberos in Nigeria takes over if the Court does not say otherwise.... 41 Likes 3 Shares |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by MASTAkiLLAh(m): 8:37am On May 02, 2023 |
If his then twenty something year old sisters could afford to buy two properties worth over four million dollars straight out of college then there's nothing wrong in Seyi buying an 11 million dollar property under investigation. Case dismissed ![cool](https://www.nairaland.com/faces/cool.png) 11 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by Majesty7: 8:38am On May 02, 2023 |
Penguin2:
Can you tell us, and the world, how Seyi Tinubu made $11million that he used in purchase of the company? I think that should go back to you. However you make it less stressful for you, his father is one of the richest black man alive. You can do your findings. So sad you guys don't read. The OP rushed to.post rubbish thinking he is doing great. I fear for you guys future 23 Likes 8 Shares |
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Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by helinues: 8:40am On May 02, 2023 |
taylor88:
Is it that you’re blind or f00lish
Can’t you see it’s from Bloomberg verified account?
If it was about Obi you for dey masturbate everywhere Ask yourself, " Am I in a cult group?" Cos the moment people stop thinking and reasoning things logically, they might have been brainwashed by a cult group. 127 Likes 6 Shares
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Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by Hyperchi(m): 8:41am On May 02, 2023 |
helinues: No be this same op created a thread about interpol looking for Adamawa REC which he ran away after his ignorance was cured.
Why do some of you people like to embark in futility exercise. Make una be productive with una time so that you can be useful to your community Na notable site post am, u can help ur ignorance and click the link 28 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by Ogiame: 8:41am On May 02, 2023 |
Igbo: this fool lost northern votes shamelessly The fool is better than your father... 🤣🤣 21 Likes 3 Shares |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by Madmohamed123: 8:41am On May 02, 2023 |
I like that guy he is a business maind person Young and Wise.
But don't support his father as president 2 Likes |
Re: Seyi Tinubu Bought $11 million London Mansion In 2017 - Bloomberg by Guyman01: 8:42am On May 02, 2023 |
And people who don't know where their next meal will come from are here to defend him and his father 52 Likes 2 Shares |