Former Nigeria’s vice president Atiku Abubakar has said the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN), an agency of the U.S. Department of Treasury, report is “old false stories”
“There is nothing to it, there were no infractions. The sequence of event as reported in the story did not indict any indictments and consequently, it will be preposterous to assume one,” Atiku’s spokesman Paul Ibe told The Guardian Nigeria in a phone conversation on Monday night.
Paul was reacting to a Premium Times story based on FinCEN report that flagged some transactions linked to the former Nigerian Vice President as suspicious as it surveilled money movements within the international financial system, PremiumTimes reported.
Atiku, some of his wives and associates have been put under close watch by the FinCEN, Premium Times reported Monday.
According to the investigation report, $40 million was identified by the US Senate investigation regarding Atiku.
PremiumTimes joined about 400 journalists from 88 countries in the investigation of about 16-month collaborative work. The investigation, organised by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, BuzzFeed, and 108 media partners across the world, included a large volume of confidential financial reports relating to the transaction activities of world leaders, terrorists, drug dealers, and money launderers.
These documents, compiled by banks, shared with the government but kept from public view, expose the hollowness of banking safeguards, and the ease with which criminals have exploited them,” Buzzfeed reported. (Guardian)