A Nigerian oil tycoon was on Wednesday sentenced to three years and
six months imprisonment for money laundering in the United Kingdom.
He was also disqualified from being a company director for six years.
Walter Wagbatsoma, 47, was reportedly involved in an international
conspiracy which swindled more than £13m from public services including
Lincolnshire’s mental health NHS trust. He personally benefited to the
tune of £480,000 from four frauds.
Wagbatsoma and his co-conspirators rang up hospitals, councils,
schools and housing associations posing as a legitimate building firm
which was owed money by the organizations. They then claimed their bank
details had changed and instructed the organizations to put the money
into a different account instead. The money was then moved around
several accounts in a bid to make it untraceable.
According to Lincolnshire police, the fraudulently obtained funds in
the UK were laundered through an account in Dubai under the control of a
co-conspirator Oluwatoyin Allison, a UK national who was convicted in
his absence at an earlier trial in April 2017 and sentenced to seven
years imprisonment. The funds were then transferred to Wagbatsoma’s
account in the UK.
The oil and gas businessman was originally detained on a European
Arrest Warrant in June 2016 whilst travelling through Germany. He was
extradited soon afterwards and charged with conspiring with others to
launder the proceeds of fraud through his business interests in the UK.
Wagbatsoma was on trial in Nigeria at the time of his arrest for his
part in a £1.9 billion oil subsidy fraud for which he was convicted and
sentenced in his absence to 10-years imprisonment in January last year.