Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned a company, Marqott Nigeria Limited, an alleged accomplice in the $9.6 billion gas supply and processing agreement between Ministry of Petroleum Resources and Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID) on four counts of money laundering.
One of the count reads: “That you, Marqott Nigeria Limited, being a designated non-financial institution, and Giovanni Beccarelli, Valentina Fantoli and Dimitri Duca, being directors of and signatories to the bank account of Marqott Nigeria Limited, sometime in September 2014, in Abuja, within the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, failed to comply with the requirements of submitting to the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, a declaration of activities of Marqott Nigeria Limited, contrary to Section 16(1) (f) read together with Section 5(1)(a)(ii) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 16(2)(b) of the same Act.”
In a statement, EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said the defendant pleaded “not guilty” to the charges. Thereafter, the prosecuting counsel, Bala Sanga, called his first witness, Umar Hussein Babangida, a Chief Superintendent of Police on secondment to the EFCC, who informed the court that he came to know the defendant when investigation letter was dispatched to Corporate Affairs Commission, (CAC) requesting the incorporation record of the defendant.
“Upon receiving a response from CAC, it was discovered that James Richard Nolan and Adam Quinn were directors and shareholders of Marqott Ltd.”
The witness further informed the court that three Italians later replaced the two Irish directors. The witness told the court that they forwarded a letter of investigation activity to the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering, and a response letter revealed that the defendant had failed to declare its activities, as required under Section 5 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 (as amended).
