The decision is a setback in the Nigerian government's efforts to recover money that it claims former officials, including former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was voted out in 2015, improperly moved out of government coffers
An effort by the Nigerian government to force JPMorgan Chase to restore funds that it claimed former officials had looted from a government bank account failed on Tuesday when a judge in London ruled in favor of the bank.
Sara Cockerill, the judge overseeing the case in London’s High Court, said she could not conclude that the Nigerian officials who had ordered the money transfers, which were made to companies linked to a former Nigerian oil minister in connection with an offshore drilling license, had committed fraud. She added that, although JPMorgan had flagged the transactions to regulators as potentially related to criminal activity, it had not breached its duty under British law to protect its customer by completing them.
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