Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Many months ago, Nigeria filed a suit against JP Morgan Chase for more than $875 million. In the suit, the Nigerian government accused the lender of negligence in transferring funds from a disputed 2011 oilfield deal to a company, Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd., a firm controlled by the country’s former oil minister, Mr Dan Etete.
A moment ago, JP Morgan asked a London court to dismiss the lawsuit, emphasising that it got the correct approvals from Nigerian officials before transferring the funds to the disputed receiver,
According to a report by Bloomberg on Monday, a lawyer for JP Morgan, Rosaline Phelps, said in court that the bank “had no duty to inquire into or investigate the validity or legality of the instructions it received,” adding that, “The only allegation that’s left is one of negligence.”
Nigeria said in its submissions to court that JPMorgan was “on notice” and that the bank faced several “red flags” that should have caused it to block the payments. The contracts to explore the deep offshore waters of the Gulf of Guinea were tainted by corruption, Nigeria says.
The country has separately sued Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA, which put more than $1.1 billion for the license into an escrow account. Some of that money, Nigeria alleges, was diverted for use as bribes and kickbacks.
Shell and Eni have previously denied any wrongdoing in an Italian criminal case over the block, called OPL 245. The companies said they made the payment into a legitimate government account to settle legal claims related to the block.
Nigeria alleges that the fraud reached the highest levels of the government of then-President Goodluck Jonathan — who has himself denied wrongdoing. The bank should have realized it couldn’t trust the senior officials from whom it took the instructions, Nigeria has said.
