Bank
of America, M&T Bank and Wells Fargo received directive from the
US government to close the accounts of the Nigerian embassy in
Washington and its consulate in New York on suspicion of money
laundering after traffic on the various accounts raised a red flag.
$3.6
million dollars was said to have entered and left the accounts in
under a month, the latest transaction being the withdrawal of $50,000
in hard cash by a top embassy staff.
The
decision to freeze the accounts is sequel to intelligence report
generated by a panel comprising representatives of the US Department of
Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Department
of Treasury, unknown to Nigerian embassy officials, to monitor wires
and traffic in all the accounts operated by the embassy.
As
part of efforts to resolve the issue, the auditor-general of the
federation and a team of auditors left for the US to begin auditing the
accounts of the embassy. Efforts by embassy officials to open new bank
accounts with other American banks have so far been politely turned
down.
The
US have also ignored all requests by the federal government to unfreeze
Nigerian embassy’s bank accounts in Washington, DC, and New York. The
move, according to sources, is setting the stage for a potential
showdown between the two countries with Nigeria also threatening to
reciprocate by freezing the US embassy’s accounts in the country.
Source: Leadership
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