Near Miss! Obasanjo narrowly 'escapes' $4.9million money laundering charges

Near Miss! Obasanjo narrowly 'escapes' $4.9million money laundering charges

The Olusegun Obasanjo's Foundation was being used to launder money. However, the foundation's chairman, Nigeria's former president, Olusegun Obasanjo managed to escape the trap by firing the chief executive officer used for the deal.

Naij.com reports that the Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation, today revealed that they have relieved a trustee of the foundation, Anne Welsh of her position in the foundation, after it emerged that she helped some Lebanese businessmen to launder millions of dollars.

Welsh  was video-taped negotiating a $4.9 million money laundering scheme that would have seen her and the Obasanjo foundation pocket about 2 million million dollars. The video showed that Mrs. Welsh “operated a well-oiled money-laundering scheme for many years”.

The video, which went viral was taped by one of the participants at a meeting in the United Kingdom in December 2014, Ms. Welsh was seen negotiating a $4.9 million money laundering scheme that would have seen her pocket huge sums of money.

She used the Ebola Virus Disease tragedy in West Africa to help a group of “Lebanese businessmen” who wished to donate money to the Obasanjo Foundation for some work in Sierra Leone.

The deal was that the money would be laundered through the Obasanjo;s outfit, with the Obasanjo Foundation getting $2m and the rest, $2.9m will go back to the Lebanese group.

Olusegun Obasanjo, the Founder/Chairman of the Foundation said that he and other staffs of the foundation were deeply saddened and disturbed by the allegations against Mrs. Welsh.

“Accordingly, the Board of Trustees has asked her to immediately resign, and she has done so.” Mr. Obasanjo said on telephone.

Obasanjo claimed that his foundation is currently investigating the matter and have already contacted personalities mentioned or photographed with Mrs Welsh in the publication that revealed the deal as well as other dignitaries and partners to inform them that "she has now become a persona non grata with the Foundation and its Chairman/Founder”.

He explained that as of the time of the video, Mrs Welsh was no longer the chief executive officer of the Foundation.

“The CEO of the Foundation at that time was Franklin Lisk,” the former President said.

Obasanjo went on to claim: “I can never associate myself with anything that has to do with money laundering and corruption, and this is a very disturbing development for us all”.

It is left to be seen if Ms. Welsh will take the fall for Obasanjo and his foundation or if she would reveal the full details fo the deal.