24 Feb 2022: Nigeria accused JPMorgan Chase & Co. of ignoring “overwhelming” evidence of fraud and glaring red flags from its own compliance staff as it kicked off a London trial over transfers to a former oil minister accused of corruption. The former is seeking $1.7 billion in damages with interest.

According to the Nigeria lawyers, JPMorgan did not do their due diligence and acted negligently in transferring some $875 million between 2011 to 2013 from escrow accounts to Dan Etete, who had been convicted of money laundering.

The bank retaliated by stating that the claim is “baseless” and that Nigeria hasn’t proved that a fraud was even perpetrated. 

The six-week trial will go into detail and all evidence will be examined as to whether the bank was conscientious in its background checks before making the transfer. Should the bank have halted payments despite pressure from government officials?

JPMorgan claims that their bankers weren’t expected to know that the transfers would be unlawful, which is what Nigeria is allegedly claiming.