How Tinubu’s Son Purchased An $11 Million London Mansion Linked to Fraud

Nigeria President-elect; Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s son has been linked to the purchase of a London mansion under fraud investigation by the federal government.

A report by Bloomberg has revealed how a firm belonging to Oluwaseyi Tinubu bought an $11 million London, United Kingdom mansion in 2017, which President Muhammadu Buhari’s government sought to confiscate as part of a probe into one of the biggest corruption scandals in Nigeria’s history.

Although there is no evidence that Tinubu was personally involved in the purchase of the UK property in 2017, President Buhari visited him (Tinubu) at the London mansion in August 2021, almost four years after the purchase, according to the Bloomberg report.

For the first time, corporate records obtained by the media outlet revealed that Oluwaseyi Tinubu, 37, is the primary stakeholder of Aranda Overseas Corp., an offshore company that in late 2017 paid Deutsche Bank £9 million ($10.8 million) for the property in North London.

The exclusive three-floor home in St. John’s Wood, a neighborhood favored by American bankers, was discovered to include an eight-car driveway, two gardens, automatic electric gates, and a gym.

According to Bloomberg, requests for comments on the purchase of the property were not answered by Tinubu’s spokesman or his son Oluwaseyi. A British attorney who is identified as Aranda’s representative in the UK also declined to comment, citing restrictions governing confidentiality.

The Nigerian government was attempting to apprehend the home’s previous owner at the time Tinubu’s son purchased the London property, according to the article, and they accused him of fleeing while owing the nation an oil-trading debt worth more than $1.5 billion.

One of the assets that Buhari’s administration attempted to seize was high-end real estate since it was believed that the properties had been bought by businessman Kolawole Aluko with proceeds from crime.

Aluko, however, refuted all accusations of misconduct and said that a court decision earlier this year clearing a former business partner of all charges had cleared his name. However, the Nigerian anti-graft agency is contesting the decision.

According to Bloomberg, Tinubu hosted Buhari during a visit to the 7,000-square-foot London residence in August 2021.

According to the report, Adegboyega Oyetola, a former governor of Osun state, and Elusanmi Eludoyin, the head of a Nigerian property group, were shareholders and directors of Aranda from the company’s formation 24 years ago until at least 2010. This information was obtained by Premium Times using documents from the offshore company data leak known as the “Pandora Papers.”

Requests for comment from both Eludoyin and Oyetola’s spokesperson went unanswered.

However, according to documents submitted this year in response to new anti-money laundering regulations in the UK and obtained by Bloomberg, Tinubu’s son, an advertising entrepreneur who was heavily involved in his father’s presidential campaign, has been in charge of Aranda, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, since June 2011. On January 20, 2011, the business was authorized in the UK as an international organization.

It was recalled that early in Buhari’s first term, the Nigerian government initiated legal cases against Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, and two businessmen, Aluko and Olajide Omokore, who won lucrative contracts during Diezani’s tenure.

The US government said in a 2017 forfeiture lawsuit filed in Texas that Aluko and Omokore bribed the former minister by funding her “lavish” lifestyle and failed to pay the state energy company for most of the crude they received.

But Alison-Madueke denied the allegations and has been challenging multiple forfeiture orders issued by Nigerian courts and has accused the anti-corruption agency of blocking her efforts to defend herself in criminal proceedings.

In June 2016, a federal judge in the capital, Abuja, granted a request by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to seize more than a dozen properties that Aluko had acquired in Nigeria and abroad, including the one in St. John’s Wood. That forfeiture order was still in force when Tinubu’s son bought the house out of receivership 16 months later.

According to court filings, the ruling was made on an interim basis pending the conclusion of an investigation into Aluko that was still ongoing as of at least the end of 2018. Aluko’s lawyer Tokunbo Jaiye-Agoro said by email sent to Bloomberg said that he can’t comment on the forfeiture case because it is still “sub-judice.”

The report further revealed that Deutsche Bank had foreclosed on the house and appointed receivers to sell it in late 2016, though there is no indication in court filings that the Nigerian government was aware the lender had taken over the house from Aluko as it proceeded with the seizure process. Aluko took out loans using other properties as collateral, according to the US Justice Department.

Court filings also showed that the EFCC said the buildings “were suspected to have been purchased with the proceeds of crime” and Aluko “fled the country” to avoid answering the fraud allegations against him.

On the other hand, Omokore was acquitted in February by a Nigerian court of charges related to the same allegations but the EFCC which accused him of defrauding the state energy firm of $1.6 billion has vowed to appeal the ruling.

Meanwhile, the judge removed Aluko and Alison-Madueke from the indictment because they were not in the country and currently, Aluko’s location is unknown.

Aluko’s lawyer, Jaiye-Agoro said that the acquittal of Omokore “puts to rest all the false allegations” about his and Aluko’s wealth, insisting that despite the appeal by the EFCC, “the current state of affairs” is that Aluko’s income was “legitimate and not from any corrupt practice.”

Omokore’s lawyer, Rafiu Lawal-Rabana, said by text message to Bloomberg “objects to the continuous link of his name to any corrupt practices,” noting that the court decision earlier this year discharged Omokore on all counts and any hitches in the implementation of the oil contracts were “purely technical not criminal.”

Meanwhile, Buhari’s spokesman and Alison-Madueke’s lawyer declined to comment on the matter. Also, spokespersons for the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Abubakar Malami, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPL), and the EFCC did not respond to requests by Bloomberg for comment.

But in October 2017, as the government that Tinubu played an instrumental role in bringing to power was chasing Aluko and his assets, his son’s company bought one of the targeted properties. The UK land records showed that Aranda still owns the building and there is currently no mortgage registered to it.

The firm didn’t purchase the house directly from Aluko, but from a UK unit of Deutsche Bank AG that held a mortgage on the property and had appointed receivers to sell it a year earlier. Aluko acquired the mansion via a BVI company in 2013 and paid £11.95 million, but Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

Aluko’s lawyer, Jaiye-Agoro said that his client has no knowledge of Aranda or the individuals behind the company and “was not privy to the sale” as the bank had foreclosed on the house, but the UK’s National Crime Agency did not respond to questions about whether it had ever received a request from the Nigerian authorities to freeze the property. The UK Home Office also declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the US Justice Department announced on March 27 this year that it has recovered more than $53 million by confiscating assets bought by Aluko for more than $160 million with what it considers to be the proceeds of corruption including a 65-meter superyacht and luxury homes in California and New York.