What do drug gangs and oil cartels have in common? They both like Cartier and Louis Vuitton products and launder the proceeds of crime through UK banks..It's those very things that have brought charges of bribery and corruption against Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former head of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and a key figure in the Nigerian government, following an investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).. Diezani K. Alison-Madueke - World Economic Forum on Africa 2012Diezani Alison-Madueke, Minister of Petroleum Resources of Nigeria, captured during the Ending Energy Poverty Session at the World Economic Forum on Africa held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in May 2012. .The NCA said Madueke, 63, is alleged to have accepted bribes during her tenure as petroleum minister in Nigeria in exchange for awarding multi-million dollar contracts in the impoverished African nation..She then used the money on chauffeur-driven cars, flights on private jets, luxury holidays for her family and the use of multiple London properties. .Assets worth millions of pounds relating to the alleged offences have already been frozen as part of the ongoing investigation..According a statement from the NCA, her charges also detail financial rewards including furniture, renovation work and staff for the properties, payment of private school fees and gifts from high-end designer shops such as Cartier jewellery and Louis Vuitton goods..Officers from the International Corruption Unit worked with Nigerian authorities during the investigation, as well as the with the NCA-hosted International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre..In March this year, the NCA also provided evidence to the US Department of Justice that enabled them to recover assets totalling US$53.1 million linked to incidents that occurred between 2010-15..“These charges are a milestone in what has been a thorough and complex international investigation,” said Andy Kelly, the head of Britain’s corruption unit. “Bribery is a pervasive form of corruption, which enables serious criminality and can have devastating consequences for developing countries.”.Madueke, who presently lives in St John’s Wood, London, will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Oct. 2. She was elected as the first female president of OPEC in 2014, after a career at Shell and ministerial posts in Nigeria..Nigeria, which produced 1.5 million barrels per day, relies on oil exports for 90% of its revenue. Transparency International ranks 150th out of 180 countries for corruption. About 63% of its people are nominally poor..Some estimates put the amount of oil revenue lost to duplicity at more than $500 billion since its independence in 1966.
