The money laundering and asset recovery section of the United States department of justice has begun proceedings to seize a mansion owned by Kola Aluko.<\/p>\n
The DoJ has initiated proceedings at the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas to seize the mansion which is valued at $25 million and located in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
According to Africa Intelligence, the US government told the court that the mansion was bought to \u201claunder ill-gotten gains\u201d from Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Aluko, an ally of Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria\u2019s former minister of petroleum resources, has been the subject of various investigations in Nigeria and abroad for allegedly taking part in shady oil contracts.<\/p>\n
Properties, including a yacht used by Beyonce and Jay Z for vacation, and a New York penthouse, have been seized from him.<\/p>\n
The US government, represented by Joshua Lee Sohn, said the Los Angeles mansion was acquired through \u201cspecified illegal activity\u201d that justifies its confiscation.<\/p>\n
The property, which was acquired in 2012, is a luxurious mansion of 1,400 square metres of land and comes with an infinity pool.<\/p>\n
Apart from the application to seize the mansion, the DoJ is also on a hunt for assets acquired on American soil by Aluko and Jide Omokore, another Diezani ally.<\/p>\n
The duo, Aluko and Omokore, reportedly won major service contracts with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) through their company, Atlantic Energy Oil.<\/p>\n
The DoJ said the duo received multiple shipments of crude at knock-down prices, resold to trading giants at comfortable profits and invested the proceeds in high-end real estate.<\/p>\n
The department said Aluko also bought three other mansions in the US through shell companies, one in Beverly Hills worth $15 million and two in Santa Barbara valued at $33 million.<\/p>\n
However, these properties have not yet been involved in seizure proceedings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The money laundering and asset recovery section of the United States department of justice has begun proceedings to seize a mansion owned by Kola Aluko. The DoJ has initiated proceedings at the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas to seize the mansion which is valued at $25 million and located in Los […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":66568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110,3,11,15,2],"tags":[2234,24394,24421,55263],"yoast_head":"\n