Igho Sanomi Files BVI Court Claim to Restore Lengard Projects, Firm Named in $14.95M Aluko Payments

Secretsreporter.com reports Igho Sanomi filed a 2024 BVI court claim to restore Lengard Projects Limited, a company named in a US forfeiture complaint over $14.95M in payments linked to Kola Aluko.

Sanomi Moves to Revive BVI-Registered Lengard Projects Amid US Forfeiture Complaint Links

Igho Charles Sanomi filed a claim on 1 March 2024 at the High Court of Justice in the British Virgin Islands to restore Lengard Projects Limited to the BVI Register of Companies — the same company name identified in a United States government forfeiture complaint as connected to $14,950,000 in payments to Kolawole Akanni Aluko, an alleged ally of former Nigerian Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke. According to secretsreporter.com, documents exclusively reviewed by the outlet confirm the filing as Claim Number BVIHCV2024/0066 before the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.

The claim, brought under Section 218 of the BVI Business Companies Act 2004 as amended, names Sanomi as the claimant and the Registrar of Corporate Affairs as the defendant. The Fixed Date Claim Form asks the court to declare the company's dissolution void and to restore Lengard Projects Limited to the register as a BVI Business Company, subject to payment of any outstanding fees and penalties. The filing also requires Sanomi to serve a sealed copy of any resulting order on the defendant and to pay $1,000 in costs to the Financial Services Commission. Filing fees of $139.79 were recorded on the form.

Sanomi's legal practitioners on the matter are Samuels Richardson and Co, of the Wattley Building in Road Town, Tortola. The form was signed on their behalf by Ayodeji D. Bernard. An affidavit of Igho Charles Sanomi, setting out the facts and details of the claim, was filed alongside the claim form, which carries a certificate of truth in his name.

The US Forfeiture Complaint and the Taleveras Payments

The United States filed its verified forfeiture complaint on 14 July 2017 at the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Civil Number 4:17-cv-02166, seeking forfeiture of approximately $144 million in assets. The matters stated in the complaint are allegations made by the US government upon information and belief.

The complaint identified Sanomi as the founder and chairman of Taleveras and as a director and 30 percent shareholder of Lengard Projects Limited, which it described as a Nigerian corporation. Table 4 of the complaint records thirteen payments totalling $14,950,000 from Taleveras companies and affiliates — including Taleveras Trading Limited and Taleveras Petroleum Trading BV — made to Aluko's personal account at LGT Bank between 12 July 2011 and 10 January 2012.

The complaint alleged those payments were made in connection with a joint venture between Lengard and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited concerning the Forcados agreements — Strategic Alliance Agreements signed in April and May 2011 between the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited, covering Oil Mining Leases 26, 30, 34 and 42. The complaint alleged Alison-Madueke, who served as Minister for Petroleum Resources from April 2010 to May 2015, used her influence to steer those agreements to companies beneficially owned by Aluko and Olajide Omokore.

Notations recorded alongside the wire transfers listed in Table 4 refer explicitly to Lengard. These include the notation "RFB Lengard JVA" against the first payment of $1,500,000 on 12 July 2011, "joint venture contract with Lengard Project" against the payment of 20 July 2011, and "Kolawole Aluko and Lengard Projects agreement for OML 30 34 42 26" against payments recorded in October and December 2011 and January 2012.

At paragraph 127, the complaint alleged that the sums in Table 4 were paid to Aluko in return for an assignment to Taleveras, or to Lengard, or to both, of the rights of Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited to lift oil under the Forcados agreements. Paragraph 128 stated that each of the transactions was transferred into and out of correspondent bank accounts at a financial institution that processes its dollar wire transactions through Newark, New Jersey.

At paragraph 122, the complaint alleged that Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited and Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited sold the oil lifting allocations assigned to them under the Forcados and Brass agreements to third-party oil trading companies, and used the proceeds to purchase the properties named in the forfeiture action.

Separate Corporate Identities Not Established

SecretReporters draws a clear distinction in its reporting: the 2017 US complaint described Lengard Projects Limited as a Nigerian corporation, while Sanomi's 2024 claim form concerns a company of the same name which he sought to restore as a BVI Business Company. Neither document states that the Nigerian corporation referred to in the complaint and the BVI company named in the claim form are the same corporate entity, and secretsreporter.com makes no such assertion in its report.

The name Lengard has previously appeared in public discourse, including in a discussion by Transparency International UK in December 2024.

Source: Google News VI — Crime