Sunday, 16 May 2010

Switzerlands Banks, Africa's Stolen Wealth

The practise of rulers like Robert Mugabe stealing everything from their country in Africa was illustrated sharply this week, when the son of one of these criminals, challenged attempts to repatriate some of the money to the country it was stolen from. 

General Sani Abacha - Nigerian Kleptomaniac

Yes, one of the sons of Nigeria's ex-ruler General Sani Abacha has tried to stop $350m (£236m) in illegally gained assets being returned by a Swiss court

The son, Abba Abacha was also convicted of being a member of a criminal organisation, and given a suspended custodial sentence, A sentence which left him free to try and stop the money being returned (ironically from Nigeria, where he lives), .... $700m has already been returned to Nigeria (and no doubt stolen again). General Sani Abacha may have stolen more than $2.2bn when in office in Nigeria, and he is only one of the hundreds of African rulers who have stolen from that continent .... the total amount now in foreign banks (and incidentally allowing the children of these criminals to swan around Europe as though they are royalty, rather than thieves), is reckoned in the billions or trillions of US dollars.

It's estimated that in Nigeria alone more than $400 billion was stolen from the treasury by Nigeria's leaders between 1960 and 1999 ..... in all, the money stolen, if returned, could wipe out all of Africa's debts, or build the infrastructure that the continent needs.

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