Money laundering: Why court quashed allegations against Aiteo boss, Peters

Details have emerged on the FCT High Court’s dismissal of allegations of money laundering against the chairman of the Aiteo Group, Benedict Peters.

Peters in suit no FCT/HC/CV/0536/17 filed alongside three of his companies Colinwood Limited, Rosewood Investments Limited and Walworth Properties Limited against the Attorney General of the Federation, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of the United Kingdom, Helen Hughes of the CPS, the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom and its investigators Stacey Boniface and John Bavister contending that some of their properties wrongly linked to former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Allison-Madueke, were legitimately acquired by them.

Justice Olukayode Adeniyi, in a recent judgment, held that evidence before it showed that Peters established proprietory ownership of the properties.

The court, therefore, restrained the defendants from interfering with the proprietary rights and/or interests of Peters and the other claimants, their agents, alter-ego or privies in relation to the properties listed in this suit.

It further restrained the investigators and agencies from interfering, either by way of arrest, criminal indictment, charge, interdiction, extradition, or in any other manner infringing on Peters’ personal liberty and freedom.

Some of the listed properties are 270-17 Street, Unit 4204, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Flat 5 Parkview, 83-86 Prince Albert Road, St. John’s Wood, London, UK; Flat 58 Harley House Marylebone, London, UK; and Apartment 4, 5 Arlington Road, London, UK.

Peters and his companies had contended that the “defendants engaged in a scheme of conspiracies, carousel fraud, misrepresentation and suppression of material facts which occasioned hardship, grave damages, loss of earnings, loss of goodwill and subjected the Plaintiffs to public contempt, odium and opprobrium.”