Kashim Shettima: Nigeria’s Master Of Crime, Fraud And Deception – “Corridor Boy” at VP’s Offices

Kashim Shettima: Nigeria’s Master Of Crime, Fraud And Deception – “Corridor Boy” at VP’s Offices

Thu Jun, 07 2012

By Our Reporter Nigeria is a country of abundant natural resources, great people and immense potential to emerge as Africa’s most prosperous economy. However, the country’s efforts to achieve growth and enhance foreign investments has been systematically aborted by the activities of some Nigerians who aim to get rich at the cost of the nation’s progress. Nigeria and South Africa at the top of African countries with the highest number of reported cases of fraud, while Zimbabwe has the highest value of fraud perpetrated in the second half of 2011, according to KPMG in its latest ‘Africa Fraud Barometer April 2012 Report’. The report shows that the value of reported fraud in the first six months of 2011 was $7.170 trillion while the value of reported fraud in the second six months of 2011 was $3.702 trillion.? In the first six months of 2011, 355 cases of fraud were reported. In the second six months of 2011 this total increased to 520. This is an increase of 46.47 percent of reported cases. As Nigeria grapples with the multi billion Pension and Fuel Scams there are several other Nigerian scamsters and criminals whose efforts undermine the progress of its millions of other countrymen who wish to lead an honest and sustainable livelihood. Under President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, there seems to be an increasing political will power to hunt down detractors and scammers who are obstacles in the country’s elevation to greater heights. But new scammers are evolving fresh ruses to trap victims and evade detection. One such major operator is Kashim Bukar Shettima, a petty car dealer who rose to become a “corridor boy” in political circles and a uncrowned king of illegal transactions including money laundering, extortion, duty evasion, tax evasion and advance fee frauds. Shettima has unprecedented expetise (notoriously known as “419” deals). Such scamsters have achieved international notoriety for Nigeria - the number "419" refers to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code (part of Chapter 38: "Obtaining Property by false pretences; Cheating") dealing with fraud. The modern 419 scam originated in the early 1980s as the oil-based Nigerian economy declined during the hyper-corrupt presidency of Shehu Shagari.Several unemployed university students first used this scam as a means of manipulating business visitors interested in shady deals in the Nigerian oil sector before targeting businessmen in the west, and later the wider population. Gone are the days when criminal kingpins bribed police and were rewarded with official security details. In addition, worldwide publicity has made it difficult to fool potential victims with old tricks—which often revolved around a scammer masquerading as a fallen dictator or corrupt official seeking help to transfer millions abroad. But new scams have evolved, such as Shettima’s advance fee frauds, round tripping, laundering and identity-theft schemes. Victims mourn the fact that any investments they have done with Shettima, have to be considered lost forever. Regretfully, many of them realised too late after losing their entire life's savings expecting to receive several millions in return. Shettima incorporated several companies in Nigeria including Barbedos Ventures Limited,Enigma limited, Sky limit International Limited, Enigma Oil Services Limited, Barbedos Oil and Gas Services Limited, Barbedos Cars Limited and Skyjet Aviation Services Limited to conduct these activities in an non obtrusive manner. Amongst his countless record of scams, Shettima deceived an American company called Insured Aircraft Title Service, an Oklahoma Company on an aircraft deal and was sued under case number OJ-2009-5905 in the USA. The defrauded company has vowed never to work on any Nigerian business in the future. Other examples of crimes include more than £20m forged cheques and postal orders couriered from Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos being found in one day at Heathrow Airport. In another incident, a handbag containing more than £1m worth of false cheques was found at a parcel centre in Coventry. In 2009, Shettima weaved a scam on a highly reputed Lebanese company called Rawfert Offshore SAL, using the portal Alibaba.com. Inspite of Rawfert cautious approach to business opportunities arising through web portals from Nigeria, they fell into Shettima’s ingenious scam signing two contracts Ref. 19/ FO 44 RF/KF and Ref. 43/RF/KF for supplies of urea and NPK (refer: bill of lading on the Congenbill 1994 form issued at Nikka Terra Port, Ukraine, dated 27 March 2009for Vessel Mariupol, losing heavily in the process. Shettima had made Rawfert believe that he is an “authorised agent” for several State governments and duped them into the transaction.Rawfert eventually won the case against Shettima after a long frustrating experience. Shettima is under scrutiny for illegal oil bunkering vessels from the Nigerian Navy. Such vessels each bearing one million litres of suspected Automotive Gas Oil are monitored by the General Investigation and Counter Terrorism section of the Commission’s Lagos zonal office. Investigations revealed that several Vessels on many occassions were each carrying about one million litres of AGO without Nigerian Navy clearance. Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has disclosed that while huge amount of dollars has been in the last one year on pipeline repairs, a record volume of crude valued at $7billion has been lost to crude theft via illegal bunkering within the same period. One oil company employee told the BBC that his company had discovered a vessel they were using had a secret compartment behind the bridge, where tens of thousands of barrels could be redirected at the flick of a switch while the hold was being filled. Other ways include almost filling the ship with legitimate oil, then topping it up with oil that hasn't been paid for legitimately, according to government sources. Or a whole ship can be filled with stolen crude using fake documents. Estimates on how much oil is stolen in this manner vary, but according to the International Maritime Organisation last year it amounted to 80,000 barrels every day. Shettima cleverly used his notorious status as “corridor boy” to his fullest personal benefits – for instance, under the false pretext of acting for the country’s Vice President, it is often reported that he manages to evade duties and taxes on importation of products. During the reign of Chairperson Farida Waziri at the helm of EFCC, Shettima actively colluded with her to extort billions of Naira from businessmen. EFCC was used as an intimidating machine that would mercilessly target businessmen with false allegations, arrests and frivolous actions with any due process or rule of law. Cleverly misusing his proximity to the VP, Shettima often intimidated vulnerable businessmen and others with Police, EFCC and SSS, through false alerts and petitions to these unsuspecting agencies. Learning from experience however, EFCC and SSS are now more wary of Shettima’s moves having realized his ulterior motives. A prime example is the case of aircrafts that he imported into the country without paying duty, again misrepresenting the VP’s offices for the benefit of his company Skyjet Aviation Services. Shettima boasts an impressive fleet including Hawkers, Learjet, Legacy 600 and Learjet 650. With no credible business to account for, common sense would question the sources of funds used for these expensive acquisitions. Further,Shettima’s created an ingenious scheme of money laundering through his representation of Embraer, Brazil. His acquisitions of Embraer aircrafts through laundered money abroad and advance fee frauds has started investigations internationally, in addition to his conduit business offerings for other Nigerian holders of ill gotten wealth. Over the years, several other items including Mercedes cars, Lexus jeeps, armoured cars and other vehicles were imported without paying any duty leading to losses to the government exceeding N 6.237 billion. All these cars could currently be found at his warehouses/premises, that were brand new cars declared as Tunkunbo. Any efforts by authorities to investigate were met with severe intimidation and threats of dismissal. In all of the above Shettima seem to have flouted Section 14 (1) (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 as his actions clearly shows elements of conversion and concealing. A master of fertilizer scams, Shettima specialized in deceiving State Governments on dodgy fertilizer contracts using front companies, leading to severe losses to the government exchequer, depriving valuable fertilizer inputs to millions of affected farmers in states like Kaduna. Such losses exceed N 15.85 billion and were caused through clever manipulation of delivered quantities against invoiced. In addition, several shipments of fertilizers, meant for farmers at a subsidized cost, were diverted to the lucrative black market through manipulation of supply records. Such shipments include vessels HAKUFU (25,236.35 MT), NORD IMABARI (25,000MT), LUBNA (21,998.135MT), ASKABAT (15,760MT), LIVADIA (27,500MT), MARIUPOL (21,096MT), ENFORCER (22,000MT), SUJITRA NAREE (25,000MT), ZOGRAFIA (23000MT), MIRACH (25,000MT) Actual supplies to farmers in Sokoto, Katsina and Kaduna were hardly around 10% of the shipped quantities and through cleverly manipulated invoices, in collusion with officials, Shettima was able to pocket a handsome N 10.56 billion.  Halliburton had in February 2009 pleaded guilty to federal charges in the United States (U.S.) that it paid $180 million in bribes to Nigerian officials to secure the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) contracts in Bonny, Rivers State. Shettima was a key conduit for these activities which are in violation of Section 16 of the Money Laundering Act 1995 (as saved by Section 23(2) of the Money Laundering Act 2004) and punishable under Section 15(2) and (3) of the Money Laundering Act 1995 (as saved by Section 23(2) of the Money Laundering Act, 2004). He was probed for his involvement in the activities of Saipem unit Snamprogetti Netherlands, as part of the TSKJ consortium, in connection with contracts to build liquid natural gas facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria. Saipem was investigated for allegations it paid bribes in Nigeria between 1994 and 2004 to get contracts worth more than $6 billion to build liquefied natural gas facilities. The normally cautious Chinese were also not spared; in the case of China Railway Construction Corporation, BeijingShettima reportedly in association with Late Waziri Mohammed, defrauded to the tune of USD 38.67mn. Shettima plans have always been hatched around gullible foreign investors. Apart from the American, Lebanese, Brazilian, Indians and the Chinese. Shettima developed the art of pretending to be close to the Vice President’s offices and creating for himself more opportunities for income. Thereby he caused several multinationals to hastily retreat from the investment plans into Nigeria. A partial list includes PetrotechInc, Maxwell Corporation, Gulf Energy, Classic Chemicals Inc, Global Investments, Maximus Industries, Nexus Holdings Brazil and others. Shettima’s style involves winning trust with promises of lucrative contracts, and eventual desertion of ties, after having pocketed a fortune. UK prosecutors are investigating laundering deals through Shettima’s conduit companies in Channel Islands and alleged bank accounts with BNP Paribas 10 Harewood Avenue London NW1 6AA (Swift: BNPAGB22) and CITIBANK Promenade Level, Cabot Place East, Canary Wharf, London, E14 4QS (Swift : CITIGB2L, IBAN: GB20CITI18500810125393). Shettima’s operations are from 13A, Ali Akilu Road, ByLugard Roundabout, Kaduna Kaduna State - Nigeria and his other premises at 11, Baltic Crescent,Maitama - Abuja. Nigeria should act decisively and quickly to identify and remove deterrents to its ambitious socio economic goals. As the world environment gets more challenging, Nigeria should enhance its attractiveness towards serious foreign investment and technologies to further its interests. This would however remain a distant dream unless fraudsters such as Shettima are not allowed to thrive in the system and sabotage any sign of progress. President Jonathan’s recent statement raises some hopes: “I want to reassure all Nigerians that this administration remains committed to waging a sustained battle against the menace of corruption. In the last one year, we have taken specific steps to reduce opportunities and avenues for corruption, and to strengthen the capacity and integrity of our institutions.”