A Washington-based lobbying firm hired by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, says it has started sharing documents linked to a 1993 US forfeiture case involving President Bola Tinubu with officials of the Donald Trump administration and members of Congress.
Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., said it provided more than 60 pages of Department of Justice records and court documents relating to the civil forfeiture proceeding involving funds connected to Tinubu.
The firm said the documents were shared after engagements with US government officials and congressional offices, adding that some officials were previously unaware of the historical case.
The records reference a 1993 case at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, where authorities sought the forfeiture of funds allegedly linked to narcotics trafficking and money laundering.
The case, which involved Tinubu and two associates, was later resolved through a civil settlement, with some funds forfeited to the US government.
The matter was raised during legal challenges to Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election, but the Presidential Election Petition Court dismissed the claims, ruling that the forfeiture proceeding was civil and that no criminal conviction had been established.
The lobbying firm says it is sharing the documents as part of its engagement on Nigeria-U.S. relations.
