Court orders closure of 2 companies linked to $9.6bn P&ID scam

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, ordered the closure of two companies linked to the $9.6 billion Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) Limited scandal.

The two companies are Trinity Biotech Nigeria Limited and Resorts Express Concept Nigeria Limited linked to the fleeing Briton, James Nolan.

The presiding judge, Justice Donatus Okorowo, in two separate judgements, held that the two companies were found guilty of the money laundering offences and were accordingly convicted under the same Act.

Justice Okorowo, therefore, ordered that the two companies be shut down and their entire assets be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The judge had, on May 6, adjourned the two separate charges filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against the two companies and the British national for judgement.

Justice Okorowo fixed the date after the EFCC counsel, Bala Sanga, and the defence lawyer, Michael Ajara, adopted their final written addresses and made their submissions in the matters.

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Although the charges were amended in the course of the trial after Nolan, a director at the P&ID Limited and the two companies, jumped bail and fled Nigeria, the EFCC applied that Nolan should be tried in absentia.

Nolan was declared wanted and an order was made for his arrest anywhere he is sighted.

The EFCC prosecuted Trinity Biotech Nigeria Limited and Nolan in the charged marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/272/2022 as 1st and 2nd defendants in the case.

The commission also prosecuted a sister case marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/273/2022 filed against Resorts Express Concept Nigeria Limited and Corrado Fantoli as 1st and 2nd defendants respectively before Okorowo.

Fantoli, also a foreigner and an associate of Nolan, was one of the suspects behind the alleged $9.6 billion P&ID fraud.

The suspect, said to be at large, alongside the company, was arraigned in absentia on November 25, 2022, on eight-count money laundering charge.

He was not present in court or represented by a lawyer when they were arraigned.

The court also declared him wanted and ordered his arrest anywhere he is sighted after Sanga made an application to the effect.

Fantoli and Giovanna Beccarelli, who had also been declared wanted and an arrest warrant issued against her, were said to be directors and signatories to the company’s bank account.

Resorts Express Concept Nigeria Limited and Trinity Biotech Nigeria Limited are two of the over 30 companies associated with the $9.6 billion scam.

Other cases linked to the scandal are currently before Justice Obiora Egwuatu and Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, besides other charges at FCT High Courts.

The Star