James Ibori, a petty thief who eventually became one of Nigeria‘s richest men, has received a 13-year jail sentence after admitting fraud of nearly £50m, described by the judge as probably “ludicrously low”.
The former governor of Delta state in Nigeria pleaded guilty in February to 10 offences relating to conspiracy to launder funds from the state, substantive counts of money laundering and one count of obtaining money transfer by deception and fraud.
“In the light of other matters, perhaps that is a ludicrously low figure and the figure may be in excess of £200m, it is difficult to tell,” Judge Anthony Pitts told Southwark crown court in London on Tuesday. “The confiscation proceedings may shed some further light on the enormity of the sums involved.”
The Metropolitan police estimates that Ibori embezzled $250m (£157m) of Nigerian public funds.
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