No Orchids For Miss Blandish: Nigerian Anti-Money Laundering Statutes and Nigerian Lawyers

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ABSTRACT

No Orchids For Miss Blandish: Nigerian Anti-Money Laundering Statutes and Nigerian Lawyers

Dr. Olumide Obayemi*

This paper revisits Nigerian Anti-Money Laundering statutes against the constitutional protection and statutory rules providing for privacy rights and confidentiality of clients’ information, and makes suggestions for reform of extant laws. The author examines extant Nigerian legislation on money laundering, the 2nd August 2012 Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Circular, Federal Ministry of Industry Trade & Investment AML/CFT Regulations for Designated Non-Financial Institutions (2013) and Terrorism (Prevention) Amendment Act (2013). The author also examines the reporting and monitoring requirements imposed on financial institutions, and other professionals, including lawyers, and juxtaposes these obligations with the privacy and confidentiality protections afforded to clients and attorneys under the Nigerian Constitution (1999), the Evidence Act (2011), and the Legal Practitioners Act. Finally, the author considers the sole decided case on the subject: Nigerian Bar Association v Attorney General of the Federation & Anor (“the NBA Case”), and while conceding that the Anti-Money Laundering laws may be permissible under Section 45 of the Constitution, the author submits that the privacy and fundamental rights enshrined under the Constitution should be supreme.

INTRODUCTION
That lawyers and their law firms may intentionally or unwittingly be involved in money laundering is not strange. In the world best-seller, The Firm₁ by John Grisham,₂ the Bendini, Lambert & Locke law firm based in Memphis, Tennessee was used as an illegal appendage of the Chicago Morolto Mafia family to launder money flowing from prostitution, gambling, racketeering, etc. In a conversation between Mitchell Y. McDeere and FBI Agent Wayne Tarrance, McDeere stated the interconnection between the Mafia and the law firm:

She knows that in the last three years the Morolto gang and its accomplices have taken over eight hundred million bucks in cash out of this country and deposited it in various banks in the Caribbean. She knows which banks, which accounts, the dates, a bunch of stuff. She knows that the Moroltos control at least three hundred and fifty companies chartered in the Caymans, and that these companies regularly send clean money back into the country. She knows the dates and amounts of the wire transfers. She knows of at least forty corporations owned by the Moroltos… She knows how they trade their dirty cash, trade it up to one- hundred-dollar-bills and sneak it out if the country.₃

* LL.M, BL, SJD. Admitted to the Bars of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the State of California. Lecturer, Department of Business Law, Lagos State University and Legal Practitioner, Ajumogobia & Okeke, Lagos.

1.  John Grisham, The Firm (Arrow Books Limited, London, United Kingdom 1991). (“The Firm”).
2. John Ray Grisham, Jr. (Born February 8, 1955) is an American bestselling writer, attorney, politician, and activist best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide. He graduated from Mississippi State University, attended the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981, practiced criminal law for about a decade, and served in the House of Representatives in Mississippi from January 1984 to September 1990. His novels include: “ATime to Kill”, “The Firm”, “The Chamber”, “The Client”, “A Painted House”, “The Pelican Brief”, “Skipping Christmas”, “The Rainmaker”, “The Runaway Jury”, “The Partner”, “The Street Lawyer”, “The Negotiator”, “The King of Torts”, “The Appeal”, “The Confession”, “The Sycamore Row”, “The Summons”, “Fish Files”, “The Racketeer”, “Bleachers”, etc.
3. The Firm, (n 1) 368.