LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will seek to confiscate 101.5 million pounds ($130 million) from James Ibori, a former Nigerian state governor who abused his office to get rich and laundered millions in Britain and elsewhere, under a court order issued in London on Friday.
Judge David Tomlinson of Southwark Crown Court said Ibori should pay the sum immediately or face an eight-year jail sentence.
Ibori is in Nigeria and has said he would appeal against the confiscation order, one of the biggest issued against an individual in recent British legal history.
The judge formally declared that Ibori had benefited from criminal conduct in the sum of 101.5 million pounds.
“I make a confiscation order in that sum because Mr Ibori has not satisfied me nor really has he tried to satisfy me that he is incapable of paying the full amount,” the judge said.
“There is no reason to allow time for the sum to be paid. I set a term of eight years’ imprisonment in default of payment.”
Ibori was governor of oil-producing Delta State from 1999 to 2007 and was extradited from Dubai to Britain in 2011. He pleaded guilty in 2012 to 10 counts of fraud and money-laundering and received a 13-year jail sentence of which he served half, as is standard.
The case was hailed as a landmark in the fight against corruption in Britain, a global money-laundering hub, and in Nigeria, where self-enrichment by the ruling elite has been one of the main factors holding back development for decades.
($1 = 0.7788 pounds)
(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Sarah Young)
