BREAKING NEWS: Amb. Adefuye And Huhuonline Plotting Damage Control Over Embassy Financial Saga….–Reports
New York [RR] Boston–Faced with allegations that Ambassador Adefuye laundered money using the embassy accounts with M&T bank, the embassy of Nigeria engages an onlinenews publisher to launder its image and save the ambassador, our resource disclosed to Republic 
Reporters.
Reporters.
[PHOTO: Jonathan, Egopija, Adefuye...Embassy Scandal...]
Our investigation shows that faced with mounting allegations that Ambassador Adebowale Adefuye has been engaged in massive banking violations, abuses and money laundering, the Ambassador has engaged an online Internet news outlet, HUHUONLINE.COM, to save his neck.
Ironically, HUHUONLINE.COM was among the first to publish the story about how the bank accounts of the Embassy of Nigeria in the United States and its consulates in New York had been closed by the US authorities and their banks. Based on the extensive reporting of HUHUONLINE.COM, the Leadership Newspapers in Nigeria further investigated and carried the story. Based on information from those familiar with the Ambassador’s activities in this regard, the Ambassador and HUHUONLINE.COM publisher, Emmanuel Asiwe, was reported to have spent the entirety of the weekend plotting how to repackage the story and dismiss the reports as a mere rumor along the lines of the Embassy statement last week, which denied all allegations and called them a mere mischief by the Ambassador’s enemies.
Ironically, HUHUONLINE.COM was among the first to publish the story about how the bank accounts of the Embassy of Nigeria in the United States and its consulates in New York had been closed by the US authorities and their banks. Based on the extensive reporting of HUHUONLINE.COM, the Leadership Newspapers in Nigeria further investigated and carried the story. Based on information from those familiar with the Ambassador’s activities in this regard, the Ambassador and HUHUONLINE.COM publisher, Emmanuel Asiwe, was reported to have spent the entirety of the weekend plotting how to repackage the story and dismiss the reports as a mere rumor along the lines of the Embassy statement last week, which denied all allegations and called them a mere mischief by the Ambassador’s enemies.
Surrounded and Drowning: Ambassador Adefuye could be described as a man in the middle of a dark, deep and vast water with fast current. It is for him a desperate effort to get to dry land. The harder he swims, though, the deeper he sinks and further away he is from land. How did an Ambassador who has been in office for just two years end up with so much scandal and so many stories of investigation and bank closures and the more scandals that seem to be coming out each day? Faced with such a situation, it was well expected that the Ambassador would think of ways to contain the deluge of bad news around him.
As it appears, he curiously reached out. In a calculated fashion, he went for the same publisher he believed did the most damage. What a smart man! Rather than blaming them, he decided to appease them. According our sources, Emmanuel Asiwe got to Washington in the evening of Friday last week in the company of another colleague of his. The two men spent several hours with the Ambassador from Friday night through Sunday morning in several meetings that lasted 2 hours at a time. According to sources close to the Ambassador, the Ambassador paid HUHUONLINE.COM the sum of $25,000 down payment, with a promise to pay more depending on how effective they were in containing the crisis, the source said.
The Game Plan: In return, HUHUM ONLINE will prepare a report highly favorable to the Ambassador. They will go as far as discrediting their earlier story on the scandal. They will claim that they could verify that the Embassies of about 30 other Africa countries had their accounts closed around the same time as the Nigerian Embassy, thereby deflecting the accusations that this is unique to Nigeria. Also, HUHUONLINE.COM will confirm that the Embassy accounts from M & T Bank has been migrated to Citi Bank and that all things are normal. The central trust of the forthcoming report will be to argue that there was no scandal and that it was all a rumor.
It is expected that given that HUHUONLINE.COM was one of the original publisher of the story, people would believe such a reversal of their earlier story and that would buy the Ambassador time to quietly manage the crisis and sort things out. That is the dry land he is swimming toward. The report by HUHUONLINE.COM is expected to be out in a matter of hours from now.
It is expected that given that HUHUONLINE.COM was one of the original publisher of the story, people would believe such a reversal of their earlier story and that would buy the Ambassador time to quietly manage the crisis and sort things out. That is the dry land he is swimming toward. The report by HUHUONLINE.COM is expected to be out in a matter of hours from now.
A Major Snag: There is only one big problem. While the Ambassador was planning with his weekend guests on how to manage crisis and deploy the new report, things were unfolding rather rapidly in Nigeria. Just the same time that the Ambassador was meeting in Washington over this, the President of Nigeria was having his third media chat in Abuja. In that question and answer session, President Goodluck disclosed that he had, the day before, ordered the EFCC to investigate the allegations concerning the Nigerian Embassy bank accounts in Washington. That means that the President had a totally different plan than what the Ambassador was thinking. Many have wondered the implications of this. It would seem that this Ambassador and his President have not been on the same page at least as far as this matter is concerned. And to order an investigation by the EFCC, instead of an internal investigation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, suggests that the President views the problem far more seriously than the Ambassador realized.
A Parallel Development: It seems clear that the Ambassador has been careful how he chooses which online reporters to deal with. If the Ambassador was interested in honest media communication, why would the Nigerian Consulate in New York try to ensnare the publisher of this website, Carl Umunnah, last week in a bizarre plan to have him arrested by the NYPD? Mr. Umunnah had merely mounted his video camera on the street across (public-walkway) from the Consulate with intention to interview the consulate officials on the Embassy banking scandal (Head of Chancery Lot Egopija specifically at his invitation). Rather than provide honest answers to Umunnah’s questions, the Head of Chancery, acting under the instruction of Ambassador Adefuye, invited Umunnah into his office pretending to be volunteering an interview. Umunnah was to shortly realize what was going on when two New York police officers called by the Head of Chancery showed up. They were asked to arrest Umunnah for harassing the consulate officials. But the officers refused and instead advised the Nigerian consulate officials to discuss with Mr. Umunnah, adding that Umunnah had right to video the consulate from the street. This is a clear double standard. In act,
our sources disclosed that the Ambassador had considered engaging Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Saharareports.com, for this job, but it was felt that given that the Embassy had used Saharareporters.com extensively in the resent past, it was not wise using them this time. Besides, HUHUONLINE.COM was highly recommended by a close friend of
the Ambassador who is also a top Government official, linked to EFCC.
our sources disclosed that the Ambassador had considered engaging Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Saharareports.com, for this job, but it was felt that given that the Embassy had used Saharareporters.com extensively in the resent past, it was not wise using them this time. Besides, HUHUONLINE.COM was highly recommended by a close friend of
the Ambassador who is also a top Government official, linked to EFCC.
This story is developing rapidly and our investigation continues. We have made calls to the Ambassador, but he requested for time to return to us. Apart from this, it would seem that another major problem is coming the way of the Ambassador. We learned that a Nigerian woman in America who did business with Ambassador Adefuye has accused the Ambassador and his wife of fraud. The lady in question has engaged the services of a Nigerian lawyer in the Washington DC area, who could not respond to our inquiries because of the sensitivity of the case, and because he did not have the permission of his client to speak to the press. But he promised to consult his client on the matter and requested for us to call him after 24 hours. We shall return with update on these bombshell stories.
Republic Reporter attempted twice this morning to contact Huhuonline, Publisher, Emmmanuel Asiwe for comments, but failed as our call/s went unanswered as at press time.
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REPUBLICREPORTERS….standing between civilization and anarchy….
The Plot and damage control by HuHuonline.com beneath:
Revealed! Why Nigerian Embassy Accounts Were Closed
Against the backdrop of media report that Nigerian Embassy bank accounts with Bank of America and Wells Fargo were frozen. Huhuonline.com can disclose that Nigerian Embassy, which has offices in Atlanta, New York and Washington DC, operated six different accounts, until March 31st 2012 with Manufacturers and Traders Trust Bank (M&T Bank). Our checks reveal that exiting of banking relations with Embassies is not specific to Nigeria and that Nigerian Embassy did not operate bank accounts with Bank of America (BOA) and Wells Fargo Bank NA.
Our findings reveal that US banks, such as JP Morgan Chase, which has a huge diplomatic clientele as it had a branch at the UN Headquarters in New York, has closed all embassy accounts. Even permanent members of the UN Security Council like France and China were among the countries that were told by JP Morgan to close their account by March 31st 2012.
Further, in 2011, Bank of America closed five accounts held by Angola embassy and several other banks have told US authorities they plan to get out of the diplomatic business, the Washington Post reported.
Besides Angola, other countries like Ivory Coast, Yemen,Nepal, Republic of the Congo, Sudan have all had their embassy accounts closed in recent years. Nigeria is just another country that has fallen prey to banks shedding their focus on their noncore but high risk business.
For the Nepalese mission to the U.N., the push and pull means finding a new bank for the second time in as many years. The U.S. “is the worst country to…open an account in,” said Dilli Acharya, third secretary for Nepal’s mission to the United Nations. WSJ reported.
According to John Lane, chief executive of Congressional Bank, the banking subsidiary of Congressional Bancshares Inc. in Betesda, Md;“the issue is “created by the U.S. government and needs to be resolved by the U.S. government.” He said he “can’t stand the heat” from regulators, and has closed two embassy accounts within the last six months. But refused to identify the embassies.
Robert Rowe, the vice president of the American Bankers Association (ABA), the main representative group for US banks, blamed growing regulatory pressure clamp down on corruption and criminal activity. “Because of requirements from government examiners, the banks are being particularly careful” about money arriving from Abroad especially African countries with High profile individuals(Boko Haram). “There is a lot of carefull scrutiny now” he said “ it is getting very difficult to tell the good guys from the bad guys”
Huhuonline.com gathered that JP Morgan Chase sent a letter to ambassadors in the United States on September 30th 2011 warning that all diplomatic accounts and credit cards will be closed by March 31st 2012.
Notice of Termination:
In the same vein, M&T Bank in a letter dated January 3rd 2012, and authored by Peter Senica, Vice President Manager, Embassy Banking, said, that it was exiting banking relationship with the Nigerian embassy, and advised the embassy to close its account by March 31st 2012.
The Letter which was obtained exclusively by huhuonline.com, reads,
“I am writing to advice you that M&T Bank is exiting the relationship with your Embassy effective March 31st, 2012. We recommend that a new account relationship be opened with another financial institution before March 31st 2012 and that you begin using their services once established.”
“In order to ensure a seamless transition of your day to day business we suggest that your M&T account be close by you before March 31st deadline since items and checks presented by for payment after that date will be returned unpaid.”
“If your account remains open after March 31st 2012 M&T Bank will mail a check to your attention for the remaining account balances minus any service charges if any.”
“Any direct deposit or automatic debits for the accounts will not be accepted after March 31st ,2012, so you should discontinue these arrangements with your depositors/creditors accordingly.”
Why Banks Are Exiting:
Huhuonline.com investigation reveals that the patriot act and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) imposes stringent monitoring requirements on US banks requiring them to track and report all activity occurring within foreign embassy bank accounts. However, diplomatic immunity and embassies legal status as foreign territory makes the monitoring even more difficult whence the push by banks that do not have a local presence in these African countries to exit the embassy banking business.
The US banks see this merely as a business decision in line with the 2004 directive by the treasury departments wherein they state that the treasury department cannot compel banks to keep embassy accounts open, if they reach the conclusion that it is most cost effective to close these accounts.
Huhuonline.com learnt that the banks started to rethink their relationship with embassies after the scandal with Riggs National Bank, which had dominated embassy banking in Washington between 2004 and 2005, the regulators reprimanded them for deficient anti-money laundering controls.
Recall that in 2010, Wachovia Bank, owned by Wells Fargo & Co was fined $160m by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over Anti-money Laundering allegations and for these reason US Banks are very scared to keep these embassy accounts as the risk exposure is perceived as very High.
The Shift:
Industry watchers, informed huhuonline.com that US Banks see this as an opportunity to adjust their risk based models, wherein they eliminate any and all relationships with Countries that they do not have a local footprint. A pertinent example is Citigroup which like JP Morgan has started this shift and they have exited “certain relationships” but is “continuing and expanding their long-standing commitment to foreign government relationships in countries where Citi operates. “ For instance Citi Bank has a local presence in Nigeria and the US and thus has taken over the operations of the Nigerian Embassy accounts. Experts thathuhuonline.com contacted, confirmed that this sort of alignment is one of the many reasons why these banks are exiting.
A Treasury official told huhuonline.com that the banks’ recent closure of embassy accounts was purely business decisions. The official said the U.S. government “has been working to assist foreign missions in obtaining banking services for many months, and we have largely been successful.”Bankers argue the regulatory scrutiny is expensive. Lenders face fines if regulators find shortcomings in antimony-laundering compliance, and reputational risk is considerable.
Nevertheless,bankers are asking for leniency from regulatory enforcement and prosecution in cases in which they lack documentation for deposits and transactions in dealing with embassies on the request of the State Department. They have received none, according to bankers,the State Department has no jurisdiction to offer the banks help with regulators.
By Emmanuel Asiwe…Huhuonline.com
Curiously countries mentioned were in one way or the other involved in money laundry and other international fraud using diplomatic cover RepublicReporters gathered in its investigation.
Mazi Dominic Ogbonna said. “With Bolaji Aluko, one must always DOUBLE-CHECK information. If you snooze, you will be fooled. Bolaji has a standard modus operandi: usually, he takes the truth, about 5% of it, and then mixes it up with 95% of outright lies in order to mislead the audience. It works all the time, because we Nigerians are so inattentive.
In the current case for example, Bolaji has tried hard to create a certain impression by posting MANY links and articles. Most people will NOT read or follow those links. But if you actually take the trouble to read them, you will come to two broad conclusions:
(a.) NOT every Embassy has had its Bank Account closed. Some embassies have NEVER had a problem with US Banks!
(b.) Wherever an Embassy Account has been closed, it was because the Embassy was using its Bank accounts to launder money and engage in other shady business.
To make the point, allow me to quote 4 excerpts from some of the links that Bolaji himself posted.
Example #1: PMorgan Chase Closes Vatican Embassy Bank Account
The Vatican has not commented on the JPMorgan Chase fiasco, but revelations in the form of leaked letters between Vatican officials that emerged last winter seem to back up the notion that all is not sacrosanct with the Vatican coffers. In one leaked letter written by Cardinal Carlo Maria Viganò, who was hastily transferred to Washington, D.C., to head the Holy See embassy there earlier this year, outright talk of rampant corruption within the Holy See sent ripples around Rome. In the letter, which was written on Vatican letterhead and sealed with an official stamp, Vigano tried to persuade the pope to let him stay in Rome to continue his anti-fraud work. “Holy Father, my transfer at this time would provoke much disorientation and discouragement in those who have believed it was possible to clean up so many situations of corruption and abuse of power that have been rooted in the management of so many departments” ….This is not the first time the Vatican bank has been named in immoral activities. Three decades ago, the Holy See faced its first battle against allegations of money laundering and corruption, and it was named in the mysterious death of Roberto Calvi, The Vatican was able to redeem its reputation back then—at least temporarily. Whether it will be able to save face this time may depend on divine intervention, or at least a better accountant.” Example #2: HSBC Closes Angolan Embassy Bank Account
“The 328-page Senate investigation report issued in February included four detailed case studies to illustrate how politically connected foreign officials “have used U.S. lawyers, real estate and escrow agents, lobbyists, bankers, and even university officials, to circumvent U.S. anti-money laundering and anticorruption safeguards.” Along with Angola, the case studies focused on Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Nigeria.”
Example #3: Chile
“Mr. Truman said he is surprised that it has taken banks this long to start pulling out of business with certain countries. He pointed to a 2004 report spearheaded by Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) that disclosed that Riggs National Bank in Washington, which had significant embassy-banking business, had helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet hide millions of dollars. That incident essentially brought the bank down” … “If we want to credibly lead efforts to stop illegal money abroad—corrupt proceeds, terrorist financing, drug trafficking and more—we’ve got to enforce our own high standards here at home,” said Sen. Levin in a statement.
Example #4: Countries with No Skeletons
“Mr. Truman said he is surprised that it has taken banks this long to start pulling out of business with certain countries. He pointed to a 2004 report spearheaded by Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) that disclosed that Riggs National Bank in Washington, which had significant embassy-banking business, had helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet hide millions of dollars. That incident essentially brought the bank down” … “If we want to credibly lead efforts to stop illegal money abroad—corrupt proceeds, terrorist financing, drug trafficking and more—we’ve got to enforce our own high standards here at home,” said Sen. Levin in a statement.
Example #4: Countries with No Skeletons
“At a January meeting between diplomats and U.S. Treasury and State Department officials at the United Nations, envoys from China, South Africa, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Iran, the Palestinian Authority and other missions said they had been hit by the bank cutbacks. Others, from Britain, Germany and Russia, said they were not affected. “The agencies will not direct or require any financial institution to close or refuse a particular account or relationship, except in extraordinary circumstances” such as when violations of law are identified, the regulators said.”
The 328-page Senate investigation report issued in February included four detailed case studies to illustrate how politically connected foreign officials “have used U.S. lawyers, real estate and escrow agents, lobbyists, bankers, and even university officials, to circumvent U.S. anti-money laundering and anticorruption safeguards.” Along with Angola, the case studies focused on Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Nigeria.”Example #3: Chile
“Mr. Truman said he is surprised that it has taken banks this long to start pulling out of business with certain countries. He pointed to a 2004 report spearheaded by Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) that disclosed that Riggs National Bank in Washington, which had significant embassy-banking business, had helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet hide millions of dollars. That incident essentially brought the bank down” … “If we want to credibly lead efforts to stop illegal money abroad—corrupt proceeds, terrorist financing, drug trafficking and more—we’ve got to enforce our own high standards here at home,” said Sen. Levin in a statement.
Example #4: Countries with No Skeletons
“Mr. Truman said he is surprised that it has taken banks this long to start pulling out of business with certain countries. He pointed to a 2004 report spearheaded by Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) that disclosed that Riggs National Bank in Washington, which had significant embassy-banking business, had helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet hide millions of dollars. That incident essentially brought the bank down” … “If we want to credibly lead efforts to stop illegal money abroad—corrupt proceeds, terrorist financing, drug trafficking and more—we’ve got to enforce our own high standards here at home,” said Sen. Levin in a statement.
Example #4: Countries with No Skeletons
“At a January meeting between diplomats and U.S. Treasury and State Department officials at the United Nations, envoys from China, South Africa, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Iran, the Palestinian Authority and other missions said they had been hit by the bank cutbacks. Others, from Britain, Germany and Russia, said they were not affected. “The agencies will not direct or require any financial institution to close or refuse a particular account or relationship, except in extraordinary circumstances” such as when violations of law are identified, the regulators said.”
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