James Ibori loses appeal against UK graft conviction

James Ibori  who was jailed in Britain for laundering tens of millions of dollars in stolen public funds through British banks and properties lost an appeal against his conviction in London on Wednesday.

According to REUTERS The Court of Appeal’s ruling against James Ibori, a former governor of oil-producing Delta State in southern Nigeria, is a relief for the British authorities at a time when they are trying to stem the flow of dirty money from overseas through London.

Ibori, who in his heyday was one of Nigeria’s richest and most powerful men, pleaded guilty in a London court in 2012 to 10 counts of fraud and money-laundering involving sums amounting to at least 50 million pounds ($66 million).

He received a 13-year jail sentence of which he served half, as is common in the British system, and is now back in Nigeria.

Anti-corruption campaigners had hailed the case as a milestone for Nigeria, where no one of his stature had been successfully prosecuted, and for its former colonial ruler Britain, long seen as too complacent about the proceeds of Nigerian corruption being laundered in the UK.

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