Fani-Kayode Might be Jailed Next Month For Money Laundering

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday fixed June 18 for judgment in the trial of a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, charged with money laundering by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the accused. Fani-Kayode, whose trial began in 2008 was accused on 40 counts of laundering about N100 million while he was the Minister of Culture and Tourism and later, the Minister of Aviation.

The laundered sum was, however, reduced to N2.1 million on Nov. 17, 2014 after the 38 of the 40 counts was dismissed for want of proof. At the resumed trial of the case on Monday, the EFCC prosecutor, Mr Festus Keyamo, urged the court to uphold the remaining two counts and to, accordingly, convict Fani-Kayode.

According to him, Fani-Kayode transacted in cash sums above N500,000 which was the threshold stipulated by the Money Laundering Act and had personally admitted making such transactions in his confessional statement of Dec. 22, 2008 to the EFCC.

``With the combination of this confessional statement and the statement of the investigating police officer that investigated the allegations, we rely on all of these to submit that we have discharged our burden that monies were received by the accused in cash and were not done through any financial institution."

``Once you cannot explain the source of the large sums of money found on you, you are guilty of money laundering.

``If the prosecution must show where the money is coming from, then the whole essence of the money laundering law is defeated.

He further argued that the court could not simply believe that the large sums that Fani-Kayode allegedly transacted were proceeds from his father's estate.

According to him, the accused should have called the tenant who paid in the money to testify in court and also back it up with his bank’s statement.

However, Fani-Kayode's counsel, Mr Adedayo Adedipe (SAN), maintained that Fani-Kayode made no confession to the EFCC, adding that the anti-graft agency had failed to show that Fani-Kayode actually accepted cash amounting to N1million as alleged in one of the counts.

Adedipe said the EFCC also failed to show to the court the person who handed over the money to the accused persons.

He said for the case of the prosecution to succeed it must be proved beyond reasonable doubts.

Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, while fixing judgment for June 18, also granted an application to substitute Wale Ajisebutu with Ogbor Elliota as surety for Fani-Kayode