Ellias Preko, a Ghanaian and former Goldman Sachs banker, who helped James Ibori, former governor of Delta hide a fortune in offshore accounts has been ordered by a UK court to pay back £7.3m(N3.2 billion) to the British treasury or face 10 years more in jail.
The order was slammed on Preko on Monday by Judge David Tomlison, following a confiscation hearing. Preko has three months to repay the money or he will return to jail. He was jailed for four and a half years back in 2013 for his role in the scheme.
Preko, a Harvard graduate, who is now 60 years old was believed to have abused his ‘gold-plated credentials’ to launder at least £3m plundered by Ibori, from Delta state treasury.
Ibori, who governed Delta between 1999 and 2007 was estimated to have pocketed up to £160 million from government treasuries, depriving the state’s poor of the cash.
Preko, who represented himself, told the court in a previous hearing much of the cash had been spent on election campaigning back in his native Ghana.
He said he had run as candidate for the centre-right NPP party back in the mid-2000s.
Preko explained that Ghana is predominantly a cash based society and that few receipts exist for his campaign spending.
From the court records, it appeared that Preko had also been close to a former governor of Kogi, late Prince Abubakar Audu, who he claimed took interest in him because he was also a former banker.
Ibori, now 60, used the laundered money to buy a fleet of luxury motors and blew millions on property in Britain, South Africa and Houston, Texas.
He was in the process of negotiating a purchase on a £12.5m private jet when Scotland Yard detectives caught up with him.
At his trial, he admitted seven counts of fraud and money laundering.
Preko, his siphoning-in-chief, of St Johns Wood Road, St Johns Wood, northwest London, denied charges but was convicted of money laundering
Like!! Really appreciate you sharing this blog post.Really thank you! Keep writing.
I’m extremely impressed together with your writing talents and also
with the layout for your blog. Is that this a paid subject or did you
customize it your self? Either way keep up the excellent high quality writing, it’s uncommon to look a great blog like this one nowadays..
Have you ever considered about including a little bit more than just your articles?
I mean, what you say is valuable and all. Nevertheless think about if you added some great graphics or video clips to give your
posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with images and videos, this
blog could definitely be one of the best in its niche.
Wonderful blog!
I used to be able to find good advice from your content.
Heya i am for the first time here. I came across this
board and I find It truly useful & it helped me out a lot.
I hope to give something back and aid others like you helped me.
Hello! I could have sworn I’ve been to this site before but after
browsing through some of the post I realized it’s
new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be bookmarking
and checking back frequently!
Your way of explaining the whole thing in this post is actually good,
all can simply be aware of it, Thanks a lot.
Howdy very nice website!! Guy .. Excellent .. Superb ..
I’ll bookmark your site and take the feeds also? I am happy to seek
out numerous helpful info right here within the post, we’d like work out
more techniques on this regard, thanks for sharing.
. . . . .
This is really interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger.
I’ve joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of your wonderful post.
Also, I’ve shared your web site in my social networks!
After I originally left a comment I seem to have
clicked the -Notify me when new comments are
added- checkbox and from now on every time a comment is added I get 4 emails with the same comment.
There has to be an easy method you can remove me from that service?
Thank you!
I just want to mention I am just beginner to blogging and certainly loved you’re web-site. Very likely I’m want to bookmark your site . You amazingly come with exceptional posts. Bless you for revealing your blog.
You actually make it appear so easy together with your presentation but I in finding this topic to be actually one thing that I think I’d by no means understand. It kind of feels too complex and extremely extensive for me. I’m having a look ahead on your subsequent post, I will try to get the hold of it!
I needed to send you one little bit of note to be able to say thanks a lot as before regarding the remarkable basics you have shown here. It has been simply strangely open-handed of you to provide openly precisely what a few people would have supplied for an electronic book to end up making some bucks for their own end, most notably seeing that you might have tried it in the event you considered necessary. Those suggestions as well acted like the fantastic way to understand that other people online have the same desire really like my personal own to grasp lots more around this problem. I think there are millions of more pleasant occasions in the future for people who take a look at your blog post.
I like what you guys are up too. Such intelligent work and reporting! Keep up the superb works guys I’ve incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it will improve the value of my web site 🙂
I like what you guys are up also. Such clever work and reporting! Keep up the superb works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it’ll improve the value of my web site 🙂
These days of austerity plus relative anxiety about incurring debt, a lot of people balk contrary to the idea of using a credit card in order to make acquisition of merchandise and also pay for a holiday, preferring, instead just to rely on this tried and trusted way of making payment – cash. However, if you possess the cash on hand to make the purchase in full, then, paradoxically, that’s the best time for them to use the credit cards for several reasons.