The president Joe Biden-led Federal Government of the United States has been fingered and accused of going into business with Gilbert Chagoury, Nigerian-Lebanese developer and funder of Eko Atlantic, despite his criminal records.
The fingered Gilbert who was born in Nigeria to Lebanese immigrants, co-founded the Chagoury Group in Lagos in 1971. The conglomerate owns construction, real estate, hotel, glass and flour milling businesses.
It’s imperative to note that the Eko Atlantic project, which started in 2008, is a real estate project that features residential and commercial properties.
Official reports have it that the project is privately funded by South Energyx Nigeria Limited – the developers and city planners, a subsidiary of the Nigeria-based Chagoury Group of companies.
It was also clarified that the company is working in partnership with the Lagos state government and is supported by the Nigerian government.
It could be recalled that in May 2019, the US mission in Nigeria disclosed that it had purchased about 50,000 square meters of land at Eko Atlantic city to build its new consulate.
Reports have it that the consulate is expected to be the largest US consulate in the world.
Unfortunately, the development has formed a debacle and raised concerns about President Joe Biden’s pledge to tackle international corruption.
Bloomberg reportedly quoted Matthew Page, the state department’s lead intelligence analyst on Nigeria from 2012 to 2015, to have said the department was not privy to the decision of the US to locate its consulate at Eko Atlantic.
Page reportedly said “We did not have input into that process, or we would have flagged that”.
“Either the U.S. government was incompetent and didn’t do that due diligence, or did that due diligence, understood who it was dealing with and basically disregarded the obvious concerns.”
Also, the newspaper quoted another source to have said objections to the consulate deal were raised within the US mission to Nigeria as negotiations were ongoing but they were disregarded.
Reports have it that Chagoury, 76, has spent decades cultivating relationships with politicians in the US and Nigeria.
It was reported that his company flourished in the 1990s through its close association with the late former Nigerian military ruler, Sani Abacha.
Gilbert was reportedly convicted in 2000 by a Swiss court for laundering some of the funds Abacha looted from the Nigeria.
It was also reported that the embattled Chagoury agreed to pay a fine of about 1 million Swiss francs (about $600,000 at that time) and handed back $66 million to the Nigerian government.
However, he vehemently denied knowing the funds were stolen.
Reportedly, between 2012 and 2016, Chagoury sought to help fund election campaigns of US politicians believed to be “supportive to his cause” — the protection of Christians in the Middle East.
It is in the news that one of the campaigns he funded was that of Jeff Fortenberry, US lawmaker, in 2016.
According to official records, Fortenberry was convicted of concealing information and making false statements to US federal authorities who were investigating illegal contributions made by Chagoury– a foreign national– to his re-election campaign. After his conviction, Fortenberry resigned from office.
News sources have it that Chagourypaid $1.8 million in fines in December 2019 to resolve the investigation.
