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Jun.28, 2010, 9:27 GMT

A court in Jersey Island has sentenced one of late former military Head of State Gen. Sani Abacha's business associates Raj Bhojwani to six years in jail.

The Guardian of London reported that he deposited tens of millions of pounds from a deal to provide overpriced trucks to the Nigerian army in a St Helier bank in the Island.

Jersey’s Royal Court heard how 53-year-old Bhojwani deposited US$184 million (£122m) in a Bank of India account on the island after checking it's bank secrecy laws.

The multimillionaire businessman got the money from selling military vehicles to the Nigerian government at up to five times their actual price between 1996 and 1997 and then using the profit to pay bribes to top Nigerian officials, including Abacha, it was gathered.

The Guardian report said some $100 million (£66m) was said to have been shared out as bribe, while Bhojwani's cut of the deal, according to the prosecution, was US$43.9m (£29.4m).

Only last week, a court in Geneva, Switzerland convicted Abba Abacha, one of the sons of late military head of state, to two years imprisonment for belonging to a criminal organisation in the country.

Abba, who was given a suspended sentence, was not present at the sentencing and his plea for acquittal was dismissed, with the judge saying that even if he was under the influence of his father and brothers at the initial stage, "he was personally responsible for the opening of at least 20 bank accounts under assumed names, from which he benefited, and for overseeing these accounts."

Bhojwani's case came to light in 2000, when the Financial Times printed an investigation into Abacha's looted billions – in particular money which was taken away in two Swiss bank accounts registered in the names Kaiser and Seuze.

The day after the report was printed, Bhojwani withdrew the US$43.9m (£29.4m) out of his Jersey accounts for 11 days in an attempt to avoid detection.

After a long investigation, Bhojwani was arrested in 2007 and released on bail with a US$50 million (£33.4m) surety. Bhojwani never denied agreeing to overprice the trucks, but in a letter to the court maintained that his profit from the deal was around $25 million (£16.6m), which grew to $43.9 million (£29.4m) as a result of the way he invested it.

While acknowledging that what he did was wrong, he said it was impossible to do business in Nigeria during Abacha's government without paying enormous bribes.

But at the sentencing hearing last week, prosecution advocate Matthew Jowitt said that Bhojwani knew how much ordinary Nigerians suffered as a result of Abacha's regime and yet he was happy to profit from their misery.

“The frauds committed in Nigeria, the criminal proceeds of which were received, possessed and handled by the defendant in Jersey, were not frauds against fellow businessmen, or a limited class of investors,” said Jowitt.

“They were frauds against a nation, and against its people. A people who it is a matter for judicial note, rank amongst the most impoverished in the world.

“This was money, both his own $40 million share, and the $100 million for Abacha, which the people of Nigeria could not afford to lose.

“It was money which could and should have been spent for the good of the Nigerian people, in improving their lives. Instead it was siphoned off for the private benefit of these men,” he stated.

Earlier this year, the Royal Court in St Helier found Bhojwani guilty of three counts of money laundering. In a statement to The Guardian, Bhojwani's lawyer Paul Sugden said the case against his client was unfair.

“Mr. Bhojwani has not been charged with and has not anywhere been tried for offences of corruption or bribery.

“He alone amongst those against whom the Crown's case alleges wrongdoing in Nigeria has faced prosecution, a proposition which even the Swiss lawyer acting for Nigeria in its efforts to recover monies said to have been 'looted' by the Abacha regime suggests might be thought of as 'unfair',” he argued.