New Telegraph

Enron battles Nigeria, U.S. over $80m yacht

Firm wants $22m from sale of seized Galactica Star

A former unit of the Enron Corporation, the United States energy-trading giant, Enron Nigeria Power Holding Limited, has begun a battle with Nigerian authorities over suspended power deals, almost two decades after the collapse of the corporation.
The company, according to a report by Bloomberg, has also joined Nigeria and the United States (U.S.) authorities in serious fight over the proceeds of the sale of an $80 million luxury yacht, Galactica.

The U.S. authorities seized the Galactica in 2018 after filing a lawsuit to recover assets it said were acquired by Nigerian businessman, Kolawole Aluko.
Prosecutors, the report by Bloomberg read, alleged in a forfeiture complaint that Aluko bought the yacht with the spoils of bribes paid to Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Nigerian oil minister.

To defray the costs of maintaining the Galactica while the case progressed, the boat was auctioned for $37 million in 2019 and then renamed Illusion.
In May, after Nigeria dropped its own claim to the funds, a Texas court agreed that the proceeds should be retained by the U.S. government.
Enron Nigeria Power Holding Ltd. says it is entitled to part of the takings and is demanding $22 million.

The company is trying to collect an arbitration award issued against the Nigerian government after the state suspended a contract signed with Enron in 1999 to build and operate a power plant.

“On the power deal, ENPH says the Nigerian government’s recent repudiation of the country’s claim to the yacht constitutes an attempt to fraudulently transfer assets to prevent its creditors from accessing them. The U.S. Department of Justice said in court filings that Nigeria’s shift was “simply a recognition of the factual and legal basis” of the U.S.’s case,” Bloomberg reported yesterday.

A spokesman for the DOJ declined to comment, while a spokesman for Nigeria’s Justice Ministry didn’t respond to calls and messages.
The U.S. and Nigeria have so far successfully opposed ENPH’s application, according to filings at the District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Once a subsidiary of Enron, ENPH was bought out of bankruptcy for $750,000 in 2004 by a Cayman Islands-registered entity.
ENPH’s claim to the yacht stems from the Nigerian government’s decision to reject a request by the company’s new owners to revive the power contract that was suspended before Enron’s demise.
An arbitration tribunal ruled in 2012 that Nigeria had breached the agreement and awarded ENPH damages of $11.2 million plus interest. U.S. courts later confirmed the award.
While ENPH’s current shareholders aren’t publicly disclosed, some are former Enron officials who were involved in negotiating the power plant deal with Nigeria, the company’s lawyer Kenneth Barrett said in an interview.
One of the U.S.’s largest corporations, Enron hid billions of dollars in losses and debt which, when revealed in 2001, propelled the company into insolvency and top executives to prison.

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