Maritime Nigeria

Main Menu

  • Home
  • News
  • Interviews
  • Maritime Info
  • Photo Gallery
  • Fact
  • Profiles

logo

Header Banner

Maritime Nigeria

  • Home
  • News
    • NPA Under Dantsoho What Does The Charts Indicate?

      Jun 17, 2025
      0
    • IMO ELECTION: Nigeria Assures On Quality Representation

      Jun 17, 2025
      0
    • Maritime Development: Nigeria, Korea Deepen Collaboration

      Jun 16, 2025
      0
    • Shipping and Plastic Pollution-The Dangers To Humanity

      Jun 16, 2025
      0
    • Ocean Conference: Nigeria Canvases Increased Funding For Developing Nations

      Jun 12, 2025
      0
    • NIMASA: Beyond BPSR-Proactivism, Broader Vision Crucial

      Jun 11, 2025
      0
    • Blue Economy: Oyetola Engage World Leaders In France

      Jun 10, 2025
      0
    • War Against Illicit Drugs: NSA Commends Customs, NAFDAC, NDLEA

      Jun 5, 2025
      0
    • FG Commits To Enhance NSC Regulatory Capacity

      May 28, 2025
      0
  • Interviews
    • Nigeria Takes Leadership Of MOWCA

      Nov 18, 2021
      0
    • APM Participates in UK Trade Expo

      Oct 31, 2021
      0
    • Reps Seek Admission at MAN

      Dec 7, 2020
      0
    • NIMASA URGE SHIP OWNERS TO RENEW CABOTAGE LICENSES

      Oct 5, 2020
      0
    • FG Sacks Aboloma As NAIC Gets New EDs

      Aug 28, 2020
      0
    • Britain Celebrate Nigerian In Covid Efforts

      Jul 26, 2020
      0
    • Zuckerberg Backs Trump Against Twitter

      May 28, 2020
      0
    • NAFDAC DG Sheds Light On Chloroquine, Herbals, Masks and Covid19

      May 12, 2020
      0
    • Reps Threaten MDAs

      Feb 24, 2020
      0
  • Maritime Info
    • 2023 POP: Minister Task Cadets On Blue Economy

      Dec 15, 2023
      0
    • Rector, Trainees Excited, Laud FG On Modern Academy

      Jan 26, 2023
      0
    • Buhari Redeploys Minister As NPA, NIMASA, MAN, Others Get New Boards

      Apr 7, 2022
      0
    • World Bank Endorse Nigerian Ports, Partners Navy On Capacity Building

      Mar 19, 2022
      0
    • NIMASA Commend Nigerian Navy, Reassures On Floating Dock

      Feb 9, 2022
      0
    • MAN Unveils Lighthouse For Training of Cadets

      Jan 27, 2022
      0
    • shipping

      Singapore Strait Dangerous To Shipping-ReCAAP

      Jan 24, 2022
      0
    • Lekki Deep Sea Port Will Increase Port Efficiency-Amaechi

      Jan 24, 2022
      0
    • Fair Competition: NSC Partners FCCPC For Effectiveness

      Jan 21, 2022
      0
  • Photo Gallery
    • SERAP Calls for Probe of Entire Privatization Processes 1999-2011

      Dec 4, 2017
      0
    • IMO Election: South Africa, Kenya, Liberia, Morroco and Egypt Make Category C

      Dec 2, 2017
      0
    • Maersk Ship on Fire as Coy Launches Six Container Lifting Tech

      Nov 2, 2016
      0
    • Captured Seafarers Languish In Captivity without Ransom

      Nov 1, 2016
      0
    • Niger Delta: Militants Ask FG to Include Former Agitators in Negotiations

      Nov 1, 2016
      0
    • Self-Audit: NIMASA Set to Review 3% Freight Charge

      Nov 1, 2016
      0
    • Recession: Japanese Shipping Companies to Merge

      Oct 31, 2016
      0
    • NSC Partners ICS on Capacity Building

      Oct 31, 2016
      0
    • AGAIN, APAPA CUSTOMS SURPASS MONTHLY TARGET WITH N33B COLLECTION

      Oct 5, 2016
      0
  • Fact
    • Maritime Police Boss Celebrate Workers

      May 1, 2025
      0
    • “VIN Is A Trade Tool, Not Punitive”-Customs

      Mar 2, 2022
      0
    • Blackmailers, False Publishers and Their Agents: Court Clears Rector

      Feb 18, 2022
      0
    • MAN Unveils Lighthouse For Training of Cadets

      Jan 27, 2022
      0
    • "APM Terminals Is Beyond Moving Boxes Around"-Laursen

      Jan 24, 2022
      0
    • MWUN: Welfare, Safety Our Priority-Adeyanju

      Dec 27, 2021
      0
    • Reversing the Trend: Koko Breaks Record at NPA

      Dec 24, 2021
      0
    • Minister Demands More From MAN At Passing Out Parade

      Dec 20, 2021
      0
    • MARITIME NIGERIA TASK NIMASA ON MARITIME DEVELOPMENT

      Dec 15, 2021
      0
  • Profiles
    • CMA CGM Brings AI Onboard

      Jun 5, 2018
      0
    • Customs Notify 577 Officers of Retirement by Eguono Odjegba

      Jan 12, 2018
      0
    • Over 100 Persons Feared Dead in Mediterranean Ship Wreck

      Nov 3, 2016
      0
    • Ballast Water: Panama Signs Up

      Oct 24, 2016
      0
    • Ist Half Report: Customs generate N385.7bn revenue

      Aug 15, 2016
      0
    • Minister/MD Speeches at the Launch of NPA's CCCIS

      Jul 23, 2016
      0
    • Face off Imminent as Dakuku Warn IOCs to Sit Up or Stay ...

      Jul 22, 2016
      0
    • Hadiza, Welcome to NPA

      Jul 16, 2016
      0
    • Habib Abdullahi Sacked Again from NPA

      Jul 12, 2016
      0
  • NPA Under Dantsoho What Does The Charts Indicate?

  • IMO ELECTION: Nigeria Assures On Quality Representation

  • Maritime Development: Nigeria, Korea Deepen Collaboration

  • Shipping and Plastic Pollution-The Dangers To Humanity

  • Ocean Conference: Nigeria Canvases Increased Funding For Developing Nations

News
Home›News›“We Won’t Shield You” US Tells African Looters

“We Won’t Shield You” US Tells African Looters

By Editor
Aug 26, 2017
1335
0
Share:
corruption_map2
The United States has sent a strongly worded warning to corrupt African political office holders, who illegally enrich themselves at the expense of their poor people, that they would no longer go scot free.
They will be investigated, held accountable and punished. The warning was given by US Department of Justice after a New York court jailed Mahmoud Thiam, a 50 year-old former minister of mines and geology of the Republic of Guinea, who was living big in America on the bribe he collected from a Chinese company. He was jailed seven years.
He will spend three of the years under supervised release, for laundering bribes paid to him by executives of China Sonangol International Ltd. (China Sonangol) and China International Fund, SA (CIF).
“Today’s sentence sends a strong message to corrupt individuals like Thiam that if they attempt to use the U.S. financial system to hide their bribe money they will be investigated, held accountable, and punished,”
According to Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco of the Department of Justice Criminal Division. “Mahmoud Thiam engaged in a corrupt scheme to benefit himself at the expense of the people of Guinea,” said Blanco.
“Corruption is a cancer on society that destabilises institutions, inhibits fair and free competition, and imposes significant burdens on ordinary law-abiding people just trying to live their everyday lives”, he added. The warning was reinforced by Acting U.S.
Attorney Joon H.Kim of the Southern District of New York, who also declared: “Today’s sentence shows that if you send your crime proceeds to New York, whether from drug dealing, tax evasion or international bribery, you may very well find yourself at the front end of long federal prison term.”
Thiam’s sentencing by U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote of the Southern District of New York was announced by Blanco, Kim , Assistant Director Stephen E. Richardson of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division and Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. of the FBI’s New York Field Office.
Thiam was convicted on May 3, after a seven-day trial of one count of transacting in criminally derived property and one count of money laundering.
“As a unanimous jury found at trial, Thiam abused his position as Guinea’s Minister of Mines to take millions in bribes from a Chinese conglomerate, and then launder that money through the American financial system,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Kim.
“Enriching himself at the expense of one Africa’s poorest countries, Thiam used some of the Chinese bribe money to pay his children’s Manhattan private school tuition and to buy a $3.75 million estate in Dutchess County”, Kim added. “Thiam abused his official position, but the outcome shows that no one is above the law,” said Assistant Director Stephen E. Richardson.
“The FBI will not stand by while individuals attempt to live by their own rules and use the United States as a safe haven for their ill-gotten gains. I would like to applaud the dedicated investigators and prosecutors who have worked to hold those who have committed these crimes accountable for their illegal actions.”
“Today’s sentencing should remind the public that no matter who you are, or how much money you have, you’re not immune from prosecution. The FBI will continue to use all resources at our disposal to uncover crimes of this nature and expose them for what they really are,” said Assistant Director in Charge Sweeney According to evidence presented at trial, China Sonangol, CIF and their subsidiaries signed a series of agreements with Guinea that gave them lucrative mining rights in Guinea.
In exchange for bribes paid by executives of China Sonangol and CIF, Thiam used his position as Minister of Mines to influence the Guinean government’s decision to enter into those agreements while serving as Guinea’s Minister of Mines and Geology from 2009 to 2010. The evidence further showed that Thiam participated in a scheme to launder the bribe payments from 2009 to 2011, during which time China Sonangol and CIF paid him $8.5 million through a bank account in Hong Kong. Thiam then transferred approximately $3.9 million to bank accounts in the U.S. and used the money to pay for luxury goods and other expenses.
To conceal the bribe payments, Thiam falsely claimed to banks in Hong Kong and the U.S. that he was employed as a consultant and that the money was income from the sale of land that he earned before he was a minister.
The trial evidence showed that the purpose of the bribes was to obtain substantial rights and interests in natural resources in Guinea, including the right to be the first and strategic shareholder with Guinea of a national mining company into which Guinea had to, among other things, transfer all of its stakes in various mining projects and future mining permits or concessions that the government decided to develop on its own.
China Sonangol and CIF, through their subsidiaries, also obtained exclusive and valuable rights to conduct business operations in a broad range of sectors of the Guinean economy, including mining. The FBI’s International Corruption Squads in New York City and Los Angeles investigated the case.
Trial Attorney Lorinda Laryea of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elisha Kobre and Christopher DiMase of the Southern District of New York prosecuted the case. Fraud Section Assistant Chief Tarek Helou and Trial Attorney Sarah Edwards, and Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section Senior Trial Attorney Stephen Parker previously investigated the case.
The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs also provided substantial assistance in this matter. The Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting all matters relating to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). Additional information about the Justice Department’s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)

Related

Previous Article

Nigerian Ports Ready For Global Synergy/Competition-Hadiza

Next Article

Libya/Italy Tighten Borders Against Migrants

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Related articles More from author

  • News

    FAO Offers Food Aid In Mozambique

    Apr 15, 2019
    By Editor
  • FeaturedNews

    Ministers Take Charge at Ministries

    Aug 21, 2019
    By Editor
  • News

    2nd National Discourse with DMPs: Stakeholders To Engage On Policy Direction

    Nov 6, 2023
    By Editor
  • News

    Rice Smuggling to End Soon

    Aug 7, 2018
    By Editor
  • News

    Piracy in Somalia is Tied to Poverty and Famine,

    Apr 24, 2017
    By Editor
  • News

    More Troubles For P&O Ferries As Britain Terminate Contract

    Jun 1, 2022
    By Editor

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

  • AgricultureNews

    LIVE STOCK INDUSTRY WORTH N33t-MINISTER

  • News

    Mugabe Dropped

  • News

    Plastic Boat Launched In Kenya

Looking For Something?

Read From

  • Agriculture
  • Customs Operations
  • Fact
  • Featured
  • Interviews
  • Maritime Info
  • News
  • One Question
  • Photo Gallery
  • Profiles
  • sports

Just In

News

NPA Under Dantsoho What Does The Charts Indicate?

Apart from the commencement of actual works on the $1billion ports reconstruction, the Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority, Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho (with unalloyed support of the performance-driven Minister ...
  • IMO ELECTION: Nigeria Assures On Quality Representation

    By Editor
    Jun 17, 2025
  • Maritime Development: Nigeria, Korea Deepen Collaboration

    By Editor
    Jun 16, 2025
  • Shipping and Plastic Pollution-The Dangers To Humanity

    By Editor
    Jun 16, 2025
  • Ocean Conference: Nigeria Canvases Increased Funding For Developing Nations

    By Editor
    Jun 12, 2025
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
© 2013 Maritime Nigeria | All Rights Reserved