Martin Brunt, sky news crime correspondent
A former DIY store cashier left the UK and became governor of an oil-rich state in Nigeria where he embezzled £158m.
James Ibori, 49, took back-handers after awarding contracts to companies fronted by his wife, mistress and sister, sold state-owned telecom shares and used a UK lawyer to launder the proceeds.
He paid £2m cash for a Hampstead home, bought a string of London properties and ran a fleet of luxury cars.
He was negotiating to buy a £12.5m private jet when Scotland Yard detectives caught up with him.
Ibori has admitted 10 charges of deception and money-laundering and is facing a long jail sentence.
Prosecutor Sasha Wass told Southwark Crown Court: “He has now accepted our case of wholesale theft, fraud and corruption when he was governor of Delta State.
“He got control of contracts and corruptly awarded them to his associates. He plundered the public purse and there is no explanation for his wealth other than he got it corruptly.”
In one corrupt deal he used public funds to buy armour-plated Range Rovers from a company run by his mistress.
Detective Inspector Paul Whatmore, of Scotland Yard, said: “The scale of his corruption can only be described as huge. Vast sums of money which were used to fund his lavish lifestyle.
“The real harm in this case is the potential loss to people in some of the poorest regions of the world.”
Ibori arrived in London as a penniless teenager and became a cashier at Wickes DIY store in Ruislip, where he was convicted of theft and handling a stolen credit card.
He went back to his native Nigeria and was illegally elected state governor – he changed his birth date on personal documents to hide his criminal convictions which would have prevented him standing for election.
Dozens of Ibori supporters were in court to hear his guilty pleas and claimed he was the victim of his “political enemies”.
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: “Corruption is a cancer in developing countries and the coalition has a zero tolerance approach to it.
“We are committed to rooting it out wherever it is undermining development and will help bring its perpetrators like Ibori to justice and return stolen funds to help the world’s poorest.”
Ibori was kept in custody and will be sentenced next month. His wife, mistress, sister and lawyer have already been jailed.
Philip
February 28, 2012
Their property should be cofriscated , they should be sent to jail for life , the money should be back in the government treasuary