Ibori: UK Police ‘bribe’ puts his conviction at risk

Photo: Ibori – jailed 13 years for fraud and money laundering

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has uncovered “material” that suggests a police detective took bribes during a corruption investigation. 

The revelation could threaten the conviction of a billionaire Nigerian politician.

Prosecutors have admitted, after years of denials, that there is “intelligence” to support an allegation that Detective Sergeant John McDonald was paid for inside information on the investigation of James Ibori, a former governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta state.

After the CPS admission last week, McDonald was removed from secondment at the National Crime Agency (NCA) and transferred back to Scotland Yard, which said his status was under review.

He has always denied wrongdoing, and an earlier Metropolitan police investigation did not identify any misconduct.

The developments could lead to an appeal by Ibori, who pleaded guilty in 2012 to fraud and money laundering after being accused of siphoning off public funds to buy a private jet and houses in London. 

He was jailed for 13 years.

“This is potentially very significant,” said a former senior CPS source involved in the original Ibori prosecution. 

“If it is true that a police officer in a major corruption investigation was himself corrupted, then I would have thought the Court of Appeal would regard that as very much calling into question the proceedings.”

The news is embarrassing for the CPS, which denied the corruption allegations for years and launched a dis­astrous prosecution of Bhadresh Gohil, a former business lawyer for Ibori, for allegedly perverting the course of justice when he told MPs and the media of the alleged bribery.

Gohil, who pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering in connection with the Ibori case in 2012, later produced documents that suggested one of the investigating officers, Mc­Donald, had received corrupt payments from a private detective agency. 

Gohil planned to use them to appeal against his conviction.

The decision to prosecute him backfired in January when the CPS was forced to produce documents, which it had previously told the court did not exist, that appeared to support Gohil’s claims of police corruption. 

The judge directed that he be found not guilty after the prosecution abandoned its case.

After the case collapsed, Gohil went ahead with an appeal against his original conviction and the CPS launched an internal review.

In a letter sent to the Court of Appeal this month, the CPS confirmed the existence of “intelligence that supports the assertion that, on or about 10 September 2007, JMD [McDonald] received payment in return for information in respect of the Ibori case”.

The home affairs select committee has been briefed on the affair and is considering whether to begin an inquiry.

“We are concerned at the serious implications,” said its chairman, Keith Vaz.

The NCA said McDonald’s secondment had been ended “following a disclosure” from the CPS. 

The Met said the officer was “subject to an internal review of their status”.

Of the alleged cover-up, it added that the force “is confident that it fully met its disclosure obligations and shared all the necessary and relevant information and intelligence with the CPS”.

The CPS said it had reviewed “aspects of the disclosure related to this case” and “initial results have found that material exists to support the assertion that a police officer received payment in return for disclosing information about the investigation”.

It added: “We are working to establish whether this material could, or should, have been disclosed earlier.”

The Sunday Times

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