Ibe Kachikwu Smuggled Exotic Car Stolen From Jaguar Plant – US Govt

Nigeria’s ex-petroleum minister Ibe Kachikwu smuggled a automobile stolen from Jaguar’s UK meeting into the U.S., courtroom paperwork seen by Peoples Gazette present.

A U.S. courtroom has ordered the confiscation of the stolen car present in possession of Mr Kachikwu. The order for forfeiture got here after the ex-minister tried to smuggle the stolen car into the U.S.

The car, a 2007 Jaguar XKR, was stolen from a Jaguar meeting facility in Birmingham, England. Within the grievance sheet, the automobile producer defined that the car was made to be used within the Czech Republic because it didn’t meet the security requirements set out by the U.S.

It additionally informed the U.S. courtroom that the stolen XKR was shipped to Lagos.

The XKR was seized on June 15, 2011, on the Los Angeles/Lengthy Seaside seaport after Mr Kachikwu tried to smuggle it into the nation. The paperwork mentioned, “Kachikwu triggered the defendant car to be exported to the US from Nigeria.”

In a consent judgment signed by Consuelo B. Marshall for the Central District of California, the U.S. authorities maintained that the stolen car was topic to forfeiture in keeping with federal legal guidelines.

“United States of America (“plaintiff” or the “authorities”) filed a grievance for forfeiture towards one 2007 Jaguar XKR. The government alleged that the car was topic to forfeiture pursuant to 19 U.S.C. §§ 1595a(c)(1)(A) and 1595a(c)(2)(A),” the paperwork added.

Mr Kachikwu admitted to the forfeiture of the car and agreed to pay $10,000 as an alternative of the car being confiscated, although he claimed he was not a celebration to the theft.

“Claimant has acknowledged that the federal government had possible trigger for the seizure of the defendant car,” mentioned the paperwork. “The theft of the defendant car from the producer, as alleged within the grievance, occurred earlier than claimant’s acquisition of the car from a dealership and didn’t contain claimant.”

Mr Kachikwu was ordered to take the car away from the U.S. inside two months.

Mr Kachikwu, an ExxonMobil Nigeria executive on the time of the forfeiture, didn’t return requests searching for feedback.

He was NNPC’s group managing director between 2015 and 2016 and the minister of state for petroleum sources between 2015 and 2019.