Aranda Overseas Corp, a company belonging to Seyi Tinubu, purchased a London mansion which the Nigerian government had tried to seize as property bought with the proceeds of crime, Bloomberg has reported.
Seyi, who is the son of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, bought the property for £9 million ($10.8 million) through the company in which he has majority shares in 2017, according to the report.
The property previously belonged to Mr Kolawole Akanni Aluko whom the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari has accused of billions of naira worth of fraud and of buying the mansion with embezzled funds.
“At the time of the purchase, Nigeria’s government was seeking to arrest the house’s former owner, accusing him of going on the run while owing the country an oil-trading debt worth more than $1.5 billion,” Bloomberg reported.
“The state was also attempting to confiscate the upscale real estate and other assets it suspected had been acquired by the businessman — Kolawole Aluko — with the profits of crime.”
Bloomberg, which based its report on previously unreported company documents, however, said there was no suggestion that President-elect Tinubu was involved in the acquisition of the property.
Both Tinubu’s spokesman and Seyi did not respond to enquiries — phone calls and text messages — by Bloomberg.
Efforts by Channels Television to reach Seyi for comments were unsuccessful, while Tinubu’s spokesman, Tunde Rahman, did not respond to calls, texts and WhatsApp messages.
The Bloomberg report has since been widely shared online, becoming a trending topic on social media.
Aluko, on his part, denied all allegations against him, saying a judgement by a Federal High Court in February this year cleared his name of the $1.6 billion fraud allegation.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which is prosecuting the case is appealing the judgement.
Bloomberg also said a British lawyer listed as Aranda Overseas Corp’s agent in the UK declined to comment based on “confidentiality rules”.
A Premium Times report cited by Bloomberg disclosed that Buhari visited the 7,000-square foot London home in August 2021 while Tinubu was staying there.
Explaining how the mansion was acquired by Seyi, Bloomberg said corporate documents it saw “show for the first time that Tinubu’s 37-year-old son Oluwaseyi is the main shareholder of Aranda Overseas Corp., an offshore company that paid £9 million ($10.8 million) to Deutsche Bank for the property in north London in late 2017.
“The private three-floor residence in St. John’s Wood — a district favored by American bankers — is equipped with an eight-car driveway, two gardens, electric gates and a gym.”
The documents seen by Bloomberg were filed this year in response to new anti-money laundering rules in the UK.
The publication said the documents “show that Tinubu’s son — an entrepreneur active in advertising who played a prominent role in his father’s presidential campaign — has been in control of British Virgin Islands-registered Aranda since June 2011”.
The company registered as an overseas entity in the UK on January 20.
