{"id":2415,"date":"2014-03-10T12:45:35","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T16:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/orgs\/lids\/?p=2415"},"modified":"2014-04-01T18:55:16","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T22:55:16","slug":"us-moves-to-freeze-and-seize-nigerian-dictator-abachas-assets-but-who-will-get-the-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/lids\/2014\/03\/10\/us-moves-to-freeze-and-seize-nigerian-dictator-abachas-assets-but-who-will-get-the-money\/","title":{"rendered":"US Moves to Freeze and Seize Nigerian Dictator Abacha\u2019s Assets\u2013But Who Will Get the Money?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This post was originally published in the Global Anticorruption Blog, an exciting new initiative by Harvard Law School professor, and LIDS mentor, Matthew Stephenson. Six current and former LIDS members&#8211;Rajarshi Banerjee, Daniel Holman, Maryum Jordan, Meng Lu, Philip Underwood, and Colette van der Ven&#8211;are contributors to the Blog. LIDS Live will post brief introductions to their posts, and direct you to the Blog to read the rest.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>By Rajarshi Banerjee<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/2014\/March\/14-crm-230.html\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a>\u00a0that it had frozen about $458 million in corruption proceeds that former Nigerian dictator\u00a0<a title=\"Sani Abacha - wiki page\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sani_Abacha\" target=\"_blank\">Sani Abacha\u00a0<\/a>and his conspirators allegedly\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/2014\/March\/14-crm-230.html\" target=\"_blank\">embezzled<\/a>\u00a0from Nigeria\u2019s central bank, laundered through U.S. financial institutions, and deposited in bank accounts around the world. The freeze is a first step in the DOJ\u2019s largest-ever forfeiture action under its recent\u00a0<a title=\"AG Holder speech announcing KARA\" href=\"http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/ag\/speeches\/2010\/ag-speech-100725.html\" target=\"_blank\">Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative (KARI)<\/a>.\u00a0 There is much to say about this development, but the question that most immediately comes to my mind (and likely many Nigerians\u2019 minds) is: What will the DOJ do with all this money?\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/globalanticorruptionblog.com\/2014\/03\/10\/doj-freezes-nigerian-dictators-458-million-in-largest-u-s-kleptocracy-forfeiture-action\/#more-706\">Continue reading on the Global Anticorruption Blog \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post was originally published in the Global Anticorruption Blog, an exciting new initiative by Harvard Law School professor, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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