A US Court has ruled that the over $3m (£2.4m) mansion in the State of Maryland, near Washington DC, should be seized from a trust set up by ex-Gambian President Yahya Jammeh.
An investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) found that the money used by the former leader to buy the six-bedroom house was raised through corruption.
“Maryland real estate is not a shelter for funds for corrupt rulers who have stolen from their countrymen,” said Selwyn Smith, one of the agents overseeing the case.
An investigation by campaigners a decade ago, first highlighted the issue. The investigation helped uncover how the former President of Gambia had laundered money to the US to buy the luxurious property.
The DOJ indicated that the property will be sold and recommended that the money be used for compensation to benefit those who were harmed by the former President’s “acts of corruption and abuse of office”, the US authorities say.
Mr. Jammeh’s 22-year Presidency, which ended in 2017, was notorious for corruption. He also faced allegations of extensive human rights abuses including killing and jailing his critics.
More details have since emerged at Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, which recommended that he be prosecuted for myriad crimes.
The commission discovered that the former President had 281 properties in the country, as well as one in the US and one in Morocco, and controlled more than 100 bank accounts. “There was no way that he could have afforded this on his salary,” and it concluded that he had misappropriated more than $300m.
Granting of Monopoly License
The investigation revealed Mr. Jammeh was found to have extorted money in the form of bribes to grant monopoly licenses for the import of certain items, such as petrol in the Gambia. In addition, he used the threat of withdrawing those licenses to get more money, and this was where the funds raised to buy the Potomac mansion allegedly came from.
Building on the work of the Gambian commission, the US DOJ detailed how the scheme worked. In July 2010, the Petroleum Company was told that its monopoly import rights would cease at the end of the year. The owner of the company then approached Mr. Jammeh to guarantee those rights until 2014.
Eleven days later, $1m left the Petroleum Company’s account with the Gambian bank- Trust Bank Ltd, and on the same day, the President renewed the monopoly license, the DOJ’s court submission says.
The following day, an account was opened at that same bank under the name MYJ Family Trust. Then, a total of $1m was transferred into that account in three transactions by an employee of the Petroleum Company.
Finally, the money was wired to a real estate agent’s account in the US. Over the following days, another $2.5m was transferred to the US and on 20th September the house in Potomac was bought for $3.5m.
The mansion had all the trappings of a grand home in an area described by the Washington Post as one of the nation’s richest little towns. Meanwhile, the six bedrooms included an open foyer entrance, a movie screening room, a pool, a gym, a guest house, and seven bathrooms.
It is not clear how often Mr. Jammeh stayed there, but his wife was a regular visitor, according to neighbors. And now, with the stroke of a US judge’s pen, the house is no longer for the brutal ex-President.
“Ex-Gambian President Yahya Jammeh and his wife thought that they could hide funds stolen from the Gambian people by buying a mansion in Potomac,” US Attorney Robert K Hur said when the civil action to seize the property began in 2020.
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