The co-founder of an offshore firm that won a controversial $6.6 billion arbitration award after arguing that Nigeria failed to fulfill an energy contract has admitted in a London court that the company and its affiliates had previously engaged in financial misconduct and deception –– including unexplained payments to senior officials, and falsifying invoices.
They testified that employees gained access to privileged government documents, moved undeclared cash across borders, sought to influence a witness, tried to destroy evidence, and did business with individuals they knew to have previously paid bribes. If the government loses its challenge, it would owe P&ID close to a third of its foreign exchange reserves. Nigerian economists argue that paying this amount wouldThe beneficiaries, meanwhile, would receive “riches beyond the dreams of avarice,” as Nigeria’s lawyer put it.
On the witness stand, Neil Murray, an Irish businessman who used to take on jobs for P&ID, admitted that he had obtained access to privileged government documents between 2010 and 2013. They outlined internal government discussions about the arbitration case, giving P&ID extraordinary insight into Nigeria’s thinking.
CAPTION: The Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari addressing the UN General Assembly in 2019 where he told delegates that “the P&ID scam” was “attempting to cheat Nigeria of billions of dollars” [CREDIT: UPI /Alamy Stock Photo]Under cross-examination, Cahill also acknowledged paying thousands of dollars to Grace Taiga, the ministry’s head lawyer who advised the petroleum minister to sign a memorandum of understanding with P&ID in 2009, and witnessed the minister’s signing of the gas...
Asked by Nigeria’s lawyer whether the accountant wanted to amend the records, Murray responded: “I would go further and say he wants to fiddle the books.” Was the accountant proposing to produce sham invoices in order to make improper payments seem proper? “That appears to be his thinking, yes,” Murray replied.
He told the court: “With hindsight, I accept that that was not appropriate and I am sorry I did it, but I did.”The trial also addressed evidence of practices unrelated to the gas dispute, as the government sought to prove that P&ID figures had a track record of illicit activities in Nigeria. Asked whether the payment to the finance minister’s wife was a bribe, Murray said: “That is how it looks.”
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