TheCable

A federal high court in Abuja has ordered the closure of a certain company, Marqott Nigeria Limited, for money laundering.

Donatus Okorowo, the presiding judge, made the ruling on Thursday.

Marqott is one of the 30 companies associated with Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID), an Irish engineering company.

P&ID had claimed it entered into a contract to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River state, with the Nigerian government, but that the deal collapsed because the government did not fulfil its own end of the bargain.

It then sued Nigeria in a British court and secured a $9.6 billion judgment in its favour.

However, Nigeria was granted a debt relief by the UK court.

Marqott was first arraigned on Monday,  February 7, 2022, for being an accomplice in the $9.6bn gas supply and processing agreement between the ministry of petroleum resources and P&ID.

The company pleaded not guilty to the four-count charge preferred by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

According to the EFCC, count one of the charge reads thus: “That you, Marqott Nigeria Limited, being a designated Non-financial Institution; and Giovanni Beccarelli, Valentina Fantoli, and Dimitri Duca, being directors of and signatories to the bank account of Marqott Nigeria Limited, sometime in September 2014, in Abuja, within the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, failed to comply with the requirements of submitting to the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, a declaration of activities of Marqott Nigeria Limited contrary to Section 16(1) (f) read together with Section 5(1)(a)(ii) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011(as amended and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 16(2)(b) of the same Act.”

Count two also reads: “That you, Marqott Nigeria Limited, being a designated Non-financial Institution; and Giovanni Beccarelli, Valentina Fantoli, and Dimitri Duca, being directors of and signatories to the bank account of Marqott Nigeria Limited, sometime in September 2014, in Abuja, within the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, failed to develop programs to combat money laundering and other illegal acts, to wit: failure to designate at management level a compliance officer within any strata of Marqott Nigeria Limited, contrary to Section 16(1)(f) read together with Section 9(1)(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 16 (2)(b) of the same Act.”

In the course of the trial, the EFCC presented several witnesses and tendered many documents as exhibits.

Delivering judgment on Thursday, Okorowo found Marqott Nigeria Limited guilty of all the four-count charges and convicted it accordingly.

He also ordered that the company be wound up and its entire assets forfeited to the federal government of Nigeria.