NEWS agencies on Wednesday reported
that Scotland Yard had arrested three of the investigators that handled the
fraud case involving former governor of Delta State, James Ibori.
The arrested men were accused
of receiving thousands of dollars in payments for providing information to
Ibori’s lawyers.
Ibori was sentenced on April 17 by
Southwark Crown Court in London for embezzling almost £50m to fund a lavish
lifestyle for his family in London and back home in Nigeria.
Elombah.com reports that three former Scotland Yard police officers
and one serving detective were among those arrested as part of an investigation
into allegations that members of the force’s anti-corruption unit were paid
thousands of pounds in bribes.
The Metropolitan police said on
Wednesday the 45- year-old male detective was arrested on suspicion of
receiving payments for information at a residential address outside of London.
Two of the former police officers,
men aged 53 and 58, were also arrested during raids at a business address in
central London. The two were arrested on suspicion of bribery of a police
officer and remained in custody.
One of the two men held at the
agency’s Conduit Street offices, according to London
Evening Standard, is
understood to be its chief executive Keith Hunter, a former Scotland Yard
detective.
The identities of the two other men
are not known.
The arrests are part of a six-month
operation launched after the Met and other bodies received documents from an
anonymous source last year.
The documents suggested that its
officers leaked to sensitive information to a firm linked to Ibori’s lawyers.
Evening Standard reports that the documents seen by it suggested that Ibori
hired the agency, RISC management to obtain information on a Met investigation
into his business affairs.
The papers allege that
RISC Management then paid Met officers £20,000 for inside information that
helped Ibori’s defence lawyers. Detectives are also investigating the
possibility that the bribery allegations were a sophisticated attempt by Ibori
and his associates to pervert the course of justice.
The claims are a new blow to
the Yard, already investigating officers for allegedly receiving illegal
payments from the Murdoch media empire for private information on the royal
family.
A Yard spokesman reportedly said on
Wednesday that, “We are investigating an allegation that illegal payments were
made to police officers for information by a private investigation agency.
“This was a pre-planned operation
that forms part of a long and complex investigation.” All three men were being
interviewed at a London police station on Monday.
The inquiry into the bribery scandal
was launched after leaked invoices apparently showed private investigators
billed Ibori for information from police.
One £5,000 payment was allegedly made
to a source for information “on forthcoming strategy to be deployed by police”.
The ex-governor hired City law
firm Speechly Bircham to defend him from the police inquiries. In turn, it
hired the private detective agency RISC.
Lawyer Mike Schwarz, who is
representing London-based solicitor Bhadresh Gohil — jailed with Ibori — used
parliamentary privilege to name three detectives he described as potential
“culprits”.
He told the home affairs
committee they were Det Insp Gary Walters and detective constables named John
MacDonald and “Clark”.
All three officers declined a
chance to respond to the allegations when contacted by The Guardian (of London) last week.
RISC Management indicated Walters would deny “any and all allegations”.
RISC Management denied all
allegations. It confirmed it was hired by Ibori’s lawyers but denied corrupt
payments, saying it “has never paid a serving police officer for information
and would never approve such payments”.
Its chief executive Keith Hunter
accused Mr Schwarz of “grandstanding” in front of the Commons committee,
instead of taking the “correct course of reporting the matter to the police”.
Speechly Bircham denied any knowledge of wrongdoing.