South Africa seizes Nigeria's $5.7m in another secret arms deal bust

Three weeks after South African
government seized $9.3million allegedly
belonging to the Nigerian government,
they have once again confiscated
$5.7million arms money from Nigeria.

According to South African newspaper
City Press , the money was seized by South
Africa’s Asset Forfeiture Unit of the
National Prosecuting Authority for
allegedly being the proceeds of illegal
transactions and even shared some
documents. See the full report after the
cut...

From City Press
The Asset Forfeiture Unit of the
National Prosecuting Authority
(NPA) has seized $5.7 million (R64 
million) for yet another arms deal
between South Africa and Nigeria.
This is the second multimillion-rand
arms deal between the two
countries in the past month that
has resulted in the money being
frozen in South African banks.

Last month, R103 million in $100
bills stashed in suitcases was seized
at Lanseria Airport, north of Joburg.
The money was frozen in both
cases for allegedly being the
proceeds of illegal transactions.
City Press’ sister paper Rapport has
learnt that the department for
offences against the state in the
Special Investigating Unit is also
involved.

Documents in the newspaper’s
possession show that the earlier
consignment was approved by the
Nigerian government – that
country’s national security adviser
personally issued the end-user
certificate for the transaction.

An entire “shopping list” was
supplied with the certificate, which
included everything from
helicopters to unmanned aircraft,
rockets and ammunition.

Sources close to the investigation
said the latest transaction was
between Cerberus Risk Solutions,
an arms broker in Cape Town, and
Societe D’Equipments
Internationaux, a Nigerian company
in Abuja.

An impeccable source said this
company paid the R60 million into
Cerberus’ account at Standard
Bank.

Cerberus was previously registered
as a broker with the National
Conventional Arms Control
Committee (NCACC), but the
registration expired in May this
year.
The marketing and contracting
permits also expired at the same
time.

The company has since applied for
re-registration, but the application
lay in the NCACC’s mailbox for
more than two months.

Sources told Rapport that Cerberus
apparently tried to pay the money
back to the Nigerian company, after
which the bank became suspicious.
The NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit
subsequently obtained a court
order in the South Gauteng High
Court to seize the money.

Cerberus’ attorney, Martin Hood,
this week declined to comment on
the matter.

NPA spokesperson Nathi Mncube
said there were no indications that
the two transactions were related.

“However, both are now the subject
of a criminal investigation and all
possible information and
connections are being investigated,”
said Mncube.
Source: Citypress.co.za