UK court rules against Nigeria in JP Morgan case, says country not defrauded OPL 245 sale

Nigeria’s federal government has lost its $1.7 billion claim against JP Morgan Chase Bank over the transfer of proceeds from the sale of OPL 245 in 2011.

The Business and Property Courts of England and Wales Commercial Court in a judgment on Tuesday, said there was no proof that Nigeria was defrauded in the deal.

The federal government had sued JP Morgan on the ground of “Quincecare duty”, alleging that the bank ought to have known that there was corruption and fraud in the transaction which saw Malabu sell its 100 per cent in OPL 245 to Shell and ENI for $1.1 billion.

The country argued that there were enough “red flags” for JP Morgan to have halted the transfers.

However, the bank rejected Nigeria’s claims, maintaining that all due processes were followed and money laundering checks were done, arguing that allegations of fraud only came up after a new government took over in Nigeria.

In the judgement, Sara Cockerill ruled that the Nigerian government could not prove that it been defrauded, saying it may be that with the benefit of hindsight, “JPMorgan would have done things differently” but declared that “none of these things individually or collectively amount to triggering and then breaching” the bank’s duty of care to its client.

Bloomberg reports that Cockerill said that by the time of the 2013 payments, the bank was “on notice of a risk” of fraud.

“There was a risk – but it was, on the evidence, no more than a possibility based on a slim foundation,” she said.