The United States, through the Department of Justice and FBI, has forfeited approximately $23 million traceable to the corruption and money laundering of former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and his co-conspirators.

The money, according to the US Department of Justice, will be returned to the Nigerian people through an agreement between the Governments of the United States and the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Nigeria).

The agreement for the repatriation was signed in Abuja, Nigeria on Tuesday, 23 August 2022, by U.S. Ambassador Mary Beth Leonard.

The repatriation, the Department of Justice noted, will bring the total amount forfeited and returned in this case to approximately $334.7 million. 

In 2014, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates for the District of Columbia entered a judgment ordering the forfeiture of approximately $500 million located in accounts around the world, as the result of a civil forfeiture complaint for more than $625 million traceable to money laundering involving the proceeds of Abacha’s corruption.

In 2020, the department repatriated over $311.7 million of the forfeited assets that had been located in the Bailiwick of Jersey. Last year, the U.K. government enforced the U.S. judgment against the additional $23 million.

The forfeited assets represent corrupt monies laundered during and after the military regime of General Abacha.

General Abacha was a Nigerian general who ruled as the military head of state of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998.

He seized power on 17 November 1993 in the last successful coup d'etat in the military history of Nigeria. He was the Chief of Army Staff between 1985 to 1990, Chief of Defence Staff between 1990 to 1993.

General Abacha became the first Nigerian Army officer to attain the rank of a full military general without skipping a single rank.

His rule saw the achievement of several economic feats and also recorded human rights abuses and several political assassinations. He has been dubbed a kleptocrat and a dictator by several modern commentators.