US based leading financial and Media Company, Bloomberg has exposed how 37-years-old Oluwaseyi Tinubu, the son of the Nigeria President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu bought an $11 million fraud-linked mansion in London, UK.
The mansion bought by Seyi, according to Bloomberg investigation, has been marked for confiscation by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government as part of a probe into one of the biggest corruption scandals in Nigeria’s history.
Although, there’s no suggestion that Tinubu himself was personally involved in the acquisition of the UK property in 2017. However, President Buhari visited him there in August 2021, nearly four years after the purchase took place, Bloomberg reports.
A corporate documents seen by Bloomberg show for the first time that Tinubu’s 37-year-old son Oluwaseyi is the main shareholder of Aranda Overseas Corp., an offshore company that paid £9 million ($10.8 million) to Deutsche Bank for the property in north London in late 2017.
The mansion, a private three-floor residence in St. John’s Wood — a district is a place known to be occupied by American bankers, according to Bloomberg, the place ia equipped with an eight-car driveway, two gardens, electric gates and a gym.
Prior to the purchase, Buhari’s government was seeking to arrest the former owner of the house. Reports show that he was accused of going on the run while owing the country an oil-trading debt worth more than $1.5 billion.
Buhari’s administration was also attempting to confiscate the upscale real estate and other assets it suspected had been acquired by the businessman — Kolawole Aluko — with the profits of crime.
However, Aluko denies all allegations of wrongdoing and says a court judgment earlier this year acquitting a former business partner has cleared his name. That ruling is being challenged by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency.
When the publication tries to reach Bola Tinubu’s spokesman and Oluwaseyi Tinubu for comment, they did not respond to emails, phone calls and text messages. A British lawyer listed as Aranda’s agent in the UK declined to comment citing confidentiality rules.
It should be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari was elected on a pledge to tackle widespread corruption, however, the country’s ranking in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index has deteriorated over the past eight years under the present administration.
Source: Bloomberg
