U.S. has taken control of $480m looted by Abacha

The United States has taken control of more than $480m looted by former military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, and his associates after a court ruling, the Justice Department said on Thursday.

The money stolen during Abacha’s 1993-1998 de facto presidency and stashed in banks around the world will be returned to

the Nigerian government, the department said in a statement.

“Rather than serve his county, General Abacha used his public office in Nigeria to loot millions of dollars, engaging in brazen acts of kleptocracy,” Assistant Attorney General, Leslie Caldwell, said in the statement.

Reuters reported that the US District Judge, John Bates, ordered on Wednesday that the funds, frozen by the Justice Department in March, be forfeited to US control.

The judgment includes about $303m in two bank accounts in the British offshore centre of Jersey and $144m in two bank accounts in France. Three accounts in the United Kingdom and Ireland hold at least $27m, the statement said.

Claims to another $148m in four investment portfolios in the UK are pending.

Abacha, who took power in a coup, died in 1998. Nigeria has been fighting for years to recover his money, but companies linked to the Abacha family have gone to court to prevent repatriation.

Between $3bn and $5bn of public money was looted during Abacha’s regime, according to Transparency International.

The Justice Department suit filed in November 2013 saying that Abacha, his son Mohammed; their associate, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, and others embezzled, misappropriated and extorted money from the Nigerian government.

They laundered funds by buying bonds backed by the US, using US financial institutions, prosecutors said.

The assets were held in banks that included Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc and Banque SBA, according to the lawsuit.

In June, after a 16-year legal battle, Nigeria recovered from Liechtenstein $228m stolen by Abacha and his associates.

As of last year, Nigeria had recovered about $1.3bn of Abacha’s money from various European jurisdictions.