FAQs

The historic victory secured by Nigeria in October 2023 was the culmination of over a decade of legal action.

The judgment delivered by Sir Robin Knowles CBE ruled that Nigeria’s challenge to the US$11 billion arbitration award granted against it was successful, finding that the award had indeed been obtained by fraud and in a way which was ‘contrary to public policy’. In particular, Mr Justice Knowles found ‘without reluctance’ that P&ID obtained the awards only by ‘practising the most severe abuses of the arbitral process.’

The judgment serves as a damning indictment of predatory international investors, who should now be deterred from preying upon Nigeria and other developing nations to satisfy their greed.

Following Nigeria’s legal victory in October 2023, US$11 billion that P&ID were aggressively pursuing will stay firmly in the people of Nigeria’s pockets.

The judgment will serve as a line in the sand, ensuring that any parties who think African nations are an easy target for exploitation are forced to think again.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Knowles criticised P&ID for the lengths they were willing to go, driven by greed. Mr Justice Knowles observed that the case had ‘sadly brought together a combination of examples of what some individuals will do for money. Driven by greed and prepared to use corruption; giving no thought to what their enrichment would mean in terms of harm for others.’

President Tinubu welcomed the victory, noting that the success was ‘not for Nigeria alone. It is a victory for our long-exploited continent and for the developing world at large, which has for too long been on the receiving end of unjust economic malpractice and overt exploitation.’

Following the successful fight against the injustice of the multibillion-dollar arbitration award, the US$11 billion can now go towards Nigeria’s future – not into the pockets of millionaires preying upon Nigeria to satisfy their greed.

The full judgment can be read here.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria and P&ID entered into a 20-year gas supply and processing agreement (GSPA) in 2010, whereby the Government agreed that it would supply natural gas (wet gas) to P&ID. In turn, P&ID agreed to process and return eighty-five per cent of the wet gas in the form of lean gas, which could be used for energy generation.

P&ID agreed to construct two or more sophisticated plants with ancillary facilities for the wet gas to be processed. This construction was, however, never carried out.

In 2012, P&ID alleged that the Federation had not fulfilled its obligations in regard to the GSPA, and claimed damages for lost profits – in the region of US$6 billion.

P&ID had however spent little to no money in preparing to fulfil its obligations. It claims to have invested US$40 million in the project, but has shown no evidence to prove this. P&ID never engaged anybody to carry out preparatory work, and nor did it hold any land at that time. It simply had no intention of carrying out its part of the GSPA.

The GSPA is, sadly, an example of officials using sham commercial deals to fraudulently divert much-needed assets from the Nigerian people.

P&ID is a shell company based in the British Virgin Islands.

It is seventy-five per cent owned by Lismore Capital Limited – an opaque entity incorporated in the Cayman Islands, about which little is known.

The remaining twenty-five per cent was recently acquired by VR Advisory Services Limited – a powerful international vulture fund. Vulture funds are a well-known type of hedge fund. They typically invest in buying the debt of the world’s poorest countries, and then take aggressive action to recover that debt.

P&ID was originally set up in 2006. It was co-founded and run by a failed music record producer from Ireland, who had no substantive experience in managing any notable infrastructure projects.

The company had no track record in the oil and gas industry, and no credentials to indicate that it would be capable of carrying out an arrangement as complex as the GSPA.

Further to that, the founders of the company were linked with a range of corrupt activities in Nigeria in the past. They also provided false evidence to the private arbitration tribunal about their prior experience in oil and gas projects.

For example, P&ID claimed its co-founders had over 30 years’ experience managing engineering projects in Nigeria, including working with Shell. This is simply not true. Shell confirmed in a formal letter that the co-founder, Michael Quinn, had no prior experience of oil and gas projects with the company – just one of many examples of the false evidence provided by P&ID to the tribunal.

The vulture-fund-backed P&ID is not a genuine commercial entity. It would never have been able to carry out its part of the GSPA.

Lismore Capital is a Cayman Islands-based entity that owns seventy-five per cent of P&ID – and therefore seventy-five per cent of the potential US$ 10 billion arbitral award.

Lismore Capital – alongside the hedge fund VR Advisory – are funding P&ID’s attempts to enforce the contested arbitral award against Nigeria.

Lismore Capital is owned by P&ID’s former lawyer in the arbitration, Mr Seamus Andrew.

Mr Andrew’s company bought the stake in P&ID in October 2017, just months after the arbitral tribunal ruled in P&ID’s favour. 

It is unusual for the former legal counsel in a case to acquire a substantial financial stake in a company that they represented in a large-scale litigation.  It is even more unusual that the only asset that the company in question has is an arbitration award obtained by the former legal counsel.

Seamus Andrew is a Director of Lismore Capital, the Cayman Islands-based shell entity that owns seventy-five per cent of P&ID.

Mr Andrew was also P&ID’s former arbitral counsel. According to his own evidence before the English court, his company bought the stake in P&ID in October 2017, just months after the arbitral tribunal ruled in P&ID’s favour.

Bank records show that Mr Andrew made large transfers to both VR Advisory and to P&ID.

In addition to representing P&ID during the arbitration, Mr Andrew has given evidence in this dispute for P&ID.

Mr Andrew is no stranger to controversial litigation. He is also no stranger to Michael Quinn and Brendan Cahill.

In 2018, his firm – Lismore Capital – received a US$ 20 million payment, which was described as an “IPCO Settlement Distribution”.  The settlement related to an arbitration involving Nigeria, and Quinn and Cahill. The English Court of Appeal found that the arbitration proceedings were prima facie fraudulent. 

Mr Andrew is also head of a London-based law firm.

Clear and concrete evidence of fraud was only recently discovered as a result of the Nigerian Government’s ongoing anti-corruption efforts.

This evidence proves that officials at the highest levels of the previous administration were corrupt. These officials, who were entrusted to safeguard the future and wellbeing of Nigerians, knowingly entered into the sham GSPA, and deliberately failed to defend properly the Federation in subsequent arbitration proceedings.

In particular, the standard protocols required by Nigerian law for authorising federal contracts were bypassed, demonstrating that the terms of the GSPA were deliberately withheld from the rest of the Federal Government by officials who oversaw its signing.

Through Nigeria’s investigations in the US in particular, it has become increasingly apparent that P&ID and VR Capital will go to any length to aggressively pursue their fraudulent US$10 billion award.

P&ID’s pattern of covering up their fraudulent conduct has only recently come to light. In addition to providing false evidence and misleading the Arbitral Tribunal, P&ID also failed to disclose evidence of suspicious payments to the English Courts when they had a clear opportunity to do so. When confronted by the incontrovertible documentary evidence uncovered by the FRN’s legal and investigatory team, P&ID have responded at the eleventh hour with implausible explanations.

P&ID and VR Capital have taken every possible step to delay or obstruct our investigations into the GSPA, which is inconsistent with their contention that Nigeria should have discovered the fraud sooner.

A former Minister for Petroleum Resources and his legal adviser at the time oversaw the signing of the GSPA.

The process carried out for the signing of the GSPA completely bypassed all standard protocols for authorisation, indicating that the contract was deliberately concealed from Government scrutiny. For example, due to its size the GSPA had to be authorised by both the Bureau of Public Procurement and the Federal Executive Council – however, neither were contacted.

Only two Committees were involved in reviewing P&ID’s capabilities – the Technical Committee and the Legal Committee, both of which were led by employees from the Petroleum Ministry. Neither carried out the necessary due diligence.

Personnel from both committees also received unexplained payments from companies associated with P&ID, suggesting the possibility of bribery.

The former legal adviser is currently facing an eight-count charge in Nigeria over the illegal role she played in facilitating the scam agreement. Bank statements seized by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have revealed that a series of payments totalling over US$20,000 were made to her offshore bank accounts, from companies associated with P&ID, while she served at the Ministry in 2010.

Clear and concrete evidence of fraud was only recently discovered as a result of the Nigerian Government’s ongoing anti-corruption efforts.

This evidence proves that officials at the highest levels of the previous administration were corrupt. These officials, who were entrusted to safeguard the future and wellbeing of Nigerians, knowingly entered into the sham GSPA, and deliberately failed to defend properly the Federation in subsequent arbitration proceedings.

In particular, the standard protocols required by Nigerian law for authorising federal contracts were bypassed, demonstrating that the terms of the GSPA were deliberately withheld from the rest of the Federal Government by officials who oversaw its signing.

Unlike the previous administration, President Buhari and his cabinet has taken a firm stance against corruption.

Since he was elected, President Buhari has established several initiatives aimed at tackling fraud. This includes the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption and the Whistle Blowers Policy in 2016, as well as the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) 2017-2021 in 2017.

US$11 billion represents a significant share of Nigeria’s GDP and national budgets. Nigeria is a developing country, with a significant proportion of its population of 200 million living in poverty.

President Buhari discussed the P&ID case at the 74^th United Nations General Assembly in September 2019, alongside climate change, international security, healthcare and poverty. This highlights the significance of this case for Nigeria and its people. In that discussion, President Buhari emphasised that the Government is “giving notice to international criminal groups by the vigorous prosecution of the P&ID scam attempting to cheat Nigeria of billions of dollars.”

Nigeria is open to business – but not of this kind. The Nigerian Government has promised to make a clear example of the corrupt individuals involved in this case.

The Federation would like to send a message to other fraudulent entities that Nigeria will take corruption seriously.

Unfortunately, under previous administrations, a continuing feature of corruption in Nigeria was the involvement of Government officials at the highest levels of office. The current administration is, however, taking a firm stance against this. It has made the crackdown a top priority and is implementing vital steps in the right direction.

The Federation recognises that corruption is endemic in Nigeria. It will not shy away from bringing to justice those guilty of fraud, including current or former ministers.

The GSPA was unfortunately yet another example of senior government officials using sham commercial deals to fraudulently divert Nigerian assets to themselves.

Nigeria is open to investment and committed to driving long-term success with its business partners. As the largest economy in West Africa, the Government is working hard to diversify the economy. Most recently, the Federation has moved up the World Bank Doing Business Rankings by 15 places in the past year.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria is committed to driving long-term success with its business partners. The Federation has adopted a number of policies to encourage investment in the country. As an example, in 2016, President Buhari set up the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, with the aim of minimising the constraints that come with running a business in the country.