{"id":4906,"date":"2015-05-08T13:52:55","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T13:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=4906"},"modified":"2015-05-08T13:52:55","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T13:52:55","slug":"obasanjo-foundation-ceo-reveals-how-former-presidents-foundation-was-used-for-money-laundering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=4906","title":{"rendered":"Obasanjo Foundation CEO Reveals How Former President\u2019s Foundation Was Used For Money Laundering"},"content":{"rendered":"

While two-time Nigeria leader Olusegun Obasanjo has often appeared to many Nigerians to be insincere about combating corruption in the country, proof of his corrupt activities has been hard to find.<\/p>\n

A new video obtained by SaharaReporters, which features Anne Welsh, the CEO of the Obasanjo Foundation in London, suggests she has operated a well-oiled money-laundering scheme for many years.<\/p>\n

Anne Welsh, a former investment banker, apparently met former president Olusegun Obasanjo during a Brussels conference in 2011 when Anne was the Chairperson of Sickle Cell Society. At the event, he befriended her and encouraged her to begin do some work with Africa.<\/p>\n

In the video, discreetly shot by one of the participants in the meeting in the United Kingdom in December 2014, Ms. Welsh is involved in a $4.9 million scheme to exploit the Ebola Virus Disease tragedy in West Africa through helping a group of \u201cLebanese businessmen\u201d who wished to donate money to the Obasanjo Foundation for some work in Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n

The group explains it would make the donation on one condition: the Obasanjo Foundation would get $2m, as long as it helps launder the balance of $2.9m.<\/p>\n

Not a problem, Ms. Welsh tells the potential contributors, explaining she was well-grounded in the fine art of management stealth: \u201cI had to go through training, through president Obasanjo, political training for one year to become discreet,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She gives away a few more secrets about how the practice works: \u201cSometimes we get dollars from people who give money to our foundation and they say they don\u2019t want it to be known that they donated the money but they want to have a letter on like our letter-headed paper and a letter from Obasanjo stating just to say \u2018Thank you for your kind donations to the foundation for the work to support Ebola\u2019. That\u2019s it. That is what we normally do.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the discussion proceeds, her interlocutors tell her they do not really care how the money given to the foundation is [actually] spent, as long as their interest is protected. They move on to discuss the percentage of the $2.9 that would come to Ms. Welsh, personally.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least 30%, think about the hard work I\u2019m going to put into this, you will be so grateful to me,\u201d she proposes.<\/p>\n

The agreement is reached. Ms. Welsh would get the 30%, (totaling $900,000) in exchange for writing a letter thanking the Lebanese community for its donation towards fighting Ebola.<\/p>\n

How is the transfer of the money to be done? Ms. Welsh explains that she basically uses GTBank in Nigeria because it is easy to manipulate the banks in Nigeria while in the United Kingdom she cannot transfer the dubious funds to anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to send it to the account in Nigeria, GT Bank, because if it comes to this account here, I can\u2019t transfer it to anyone, if it comes to a charity account in the UK I can\u2019t transfer it out. I can also pay you from a UK account.\u201d<\/p>\n

She provides further guarantees: \u201cImmediately it hits my account it gets to you [you get yours] right away. And I need the account details you want me to transfer it to. Is it a Geneva account?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Welsh further explains her operational method. \u201c\u2026That\u2019s why I\u2019m in Nigeria on the 26th so that I can seat at the bank while I do the transfer back to your account, it\u2019s a good coincidence because in Nigeria I don\u2019t trust the bank I will rather be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by one of her interlocutors whether she has handled this kind of business before, Ms. Welsh confirms she has done it more than once.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done this before, I have even done it from the Nigerian end and London end. I just want to make sure that whoever\u2019s account I send it to is able to receive bulk transfers.\u201d<\/p>\n

She assures the man: \u201cYou are not the first and you will not be the last.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently quite pleased at making nearly $1m from just a few minutes\u2019 meeting, Obasanjo\u2019s CEO, who stresses that she has \u201ca very good reputation\u201d she must protect, becomes loquacious and provides a quick autobiography.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life started out slow and it picked up, and I\u2019m going to pray to God it stays high, just look at it, I just met you guys. I\u2019m a firm believer that the people that are good around me will always be around me. One question I get, \u201cHow do you work with President Obasanjo\u201d because if you read about him you will see that he fought the war in Nigeria, he\u2019s the guy all other leaders call up on for help, him and I are always travelling, last time we were in Ghana and this guy had a problem we had to help get money from Goodluck because he did not have enough money. We did so much secret things. Then Obasanjo said to me that the reason he\u2019s doing all these things in front of me and with me is because he trusts me. First time I met him was in Brussels, he was giving a keynote address, and he said to me, \u2018Come to Africa, and I was like \u201cI\u2019ve not been to that country since I left\u201d and he said to me \u2018Just come, I\u2019ll get my wife to look after you.\u2019 I wasn\u2019t sure but something in my mind said it was alright, I asked my mum, I did my research just like how you did your research on me, I did my research on him. So I said to myself, \u2018Ann you\u2019ve lived in Nigeria, the worst that could happen is you dying\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

By \u201cthis guy\u201d she was referring to Ghanaian leader John Mahama. By \u201cGoodluck\u201d she meant outgoing Nigerian leader, Mr. Jonathan.<\/p>\n

Translation: Mr. Mahama desperately\u2014and apparently personally\u2014needed funds, and Obasanjo somehow obtained it for him from Mr. Jonathan. It is unclear at what time that event took place or why. Those details are critical because in 2013 and 2014, Obasanjo was at war with Mr. Jonathan, reportedly over corruption and incompetence. It was in December 2013 that Obasanjo wrote his famous letter to Jonathan.<\/p>\n

In his new autobiography, \u201cMy Watch\u201d Obasanjo said of Mr. Jonathan among many other blistering comments: \u201cIn the area of corruption, we have been going back steadily from the inception of Yar\u2019Adua\u2019s administration when the \u2018hunter\u2019 became the \u2018hunted\u2019. Under Jonathan we seem to have gone from frying pan to fire. If in the past corruption was in the corridors of power, it would seem now to be in the sitting room, dining room and bedroom of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is also of great interest that Mr. Mahama took office as President of Ghana in July 2012, suggesting that unless Obasanjo took advantage of his quarrels with Jonathan in 2013 and 2014 for financial gain, it could only have been in the second half of 2012 that he was on sufficiently-happy terms with Jonathan to have asked him for money for the Ghanaian leader.<\/p>\n

SaharaReporters reached out to Ms. Welsh so she could narrate the context of the meeting at which the audiotape was made. She confirmed details of the meeting, stating that she was indeed present, but denied that any wrongdoing took place. She also confirmed to SaharaReporters that she clearly stated her name over the course of the meeting. She naturally did not comment on any of the \u201cso much secret things\u201d she admitted she has done with Obasanjo.<\/p>\n

Also contacted, representatives for Obasanjo told SaharaReporters that the Obasanjo Foundation has copies of its audited accounts from 2012 and 2013, and that they are finalizing the 2014 audit. They insisted that they could account for all transactions and the use of their funds. They offered SaharaReporters copies of those older reports for review.<\/p>\n

Read On SaharaReporters, the Full Transcription of Money Laundering Scandal With Anne Welsh, On Behalf Of The Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation\"obasanjo\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While two-time Nigeria leader Olusegun Obasanjo has often appeared to many Nigerians to be insincere about combating corruption in the country, proof of his corrupt activities has been hard to find. A new video obtained by SaharaReporters, which features Anne Welsh, the CEO of the Obasanjo Foundation in London, suggests she has operated a well-oiled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[182,151],"class_list":["post-4906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-olusegun-obasanjo","tag-president-jonathan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/obasanjo.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-1h8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4907,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4906\/revisions\/4907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}