Prosecutors in the United State, on Wednesday, 15 July 2020, filed a civil lawsuit in the United States District Court in Maryland seeking to forfeit to the Federal Government of the United States the Potomac property belonging to former President Yahya Jammeh and his wife, Zineb Jammeh. The couple, according to the complaint filed by prosecutors obtained the property, on 20 September 2010, for almost four million dollars under a trust—MYJ Family Revocable Trust created by Zineb Jammeh. The trust was named after their daughter, Mariam Jammeh.
According to the court filing, the U.S. Government is seeking to forfeit the real “property located in Potomac, Maryland, commonly known as 9908 Bentcross Drive, Potomac, MD 20854 and all appurtenances, improvements, and attachments located thereon, and any property traceable thereto.” Prosecutors are seeking to forfeit the only known Jammeh’s mansion in the U.S. because according to them, the “Defendant Property was acquired with proceeds derived from illicit bribes and stolen public funds misappropriated by the former President of Gambia, YAHYA JAMMEH (“JAMMEH”) and his wife, ZINEB JAMMEH (“ZINEB”) in violation of U.S. and Gambian law.”
The U.S. prosecutors laid their case that Yahya Jammeh could not have acquired the funds to buy a multimillion-dollar mansion in the United States from his legitimate earnings. They also argued that neither could have his wife, Zineb, who was not gainfully employed or had a source of income to afford the property in the U.S. According to their filing, at the time when he seized power in a military coup d’ état in The Gambia, in July1994, his salary as a lieutenant in The Gambia Army was D2,744.20 ($53.00) per month amounting to an annual salary of D32,930 ($636). In the twenty years as president of The Gambia, his salary was subsequently raised to “$911 USD per month in January 2006 or $10,932 USD per year, to $1,492 USD per month for an annual total of $17,904 USD in January 2007 and to $3,295 USD per month for an annual total of $39,540 USD from January 2008 to December 2014.” By the time he left office after losing the presidential election to the current president, Adama Barrow, according to the prosecutors, his annual salary was $65,000 USD per year.
Prosecutors argued neither Jammeh nor Zineb who do not appear to have family wealth to explain how they acquired their assets, at the end of his presidency “accumulated at least 281 known landed properties registered in his name or in companies and foundations in which he has shares or an interest; and he operated over 100 private bank accounts directly or through” corrupt business partners, shell companies or foundations.
According to court documents, on 8 August 2010, Zineb created the MYJ Revocable Trust a day after which Jammeh’s business partners at Petroleum Company in The Gambia opened a bank account to facilitate the transfer of the funds to purchase the property in the United States. On 13 August 2010, three cash deposits of $800,000, $125,000, and $75,000 were deposited into the MYJ Trust account in the United States. Cash transfers from the Trust Bank account into the MYJ Revocable Trust account continued when on 20 August, $1,000,000; 23 August, $500,000; and 2 September, $1,000,000 were made.
As the cash were transferred into the MYJ Revocable Trust account from the Trust Bank account of Petroleum Company, they were immediately wired from the MYJ Revocable Trust to a Wachovia account of the Paragon Title and Escrow Company in Bethesda, Maryland. On 18 August, $1,000,000; 25 August, $1,500,000; 7 September, $1,000,000; and 8 September, $62,610 were wired from the MYJ Revocable Trust account to Wachovia account of the Paragon Title and Escrow Company. Court documents indicate that these payments added up to $3,500,000 to purchase the property and an additional $62,610 for the closing costs.
The United States Government is seeking to forfeit Jammeh’s mansion on the grounds that it was derive from proceeds traceable to specific unlawful activities; that the Jammehs and their associates were involved in transactions or attempted transactions in violation of U. S. laws; undertook financial transactions with illegal funds to acquire the property and concealed the funds and its sources; that they transported, transmitted and transferred monetary instruments or funds into and within the United States; and that the property was acquired through conspiracies in unlawful activities of misappropriation, theft, embezzlement, bribery of a public official overseas but also transported those stolen and fraudulent assets into the United States through wire fraud. All these five violations are punishable under the Federal Criminal Codes of the United States. The prosecutors, however, have not indicated if they will pursue the criminal charges against Jammeh, his wife and associates.
In a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur for the District of Maryland said “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, Maryland. This action demonstrates that the United States will not allow criminals to profit from their crimes and will seek justice for crime victims both here and abroad.”
The property that Jammeh bought almost ten years ago, according to internet search was built in 1991. It has six bedrooms and 9 bathrooms on a 11,318 square feet on a 2.3-acre property. Market analysis indicate that it consistently lost value from 2010 to date as its current market value ranges from $2,723,513 to $3,116,200—a 22 percent to 11 percent drop from the $3,500,00 that Jammeh bought it for.
This is not the first time the United States government went after Jammeh or his business associates. On 17 May 2018, the State Department of the United State imposed sanctions on Jammeh’s business partner Mohammed Bazzi as a sponsor of international terrorism but also for participating in illicit criminal activities which include narcotics trafficking. According to a statement by the U.S. States Department, “Mohammad Bazzi is a close associate of Yahya Jammeh, the corrupt former leader of The Gambia who, in addition to ordering targeted assassinations, plundered The Gambia’s state coffers for his personal gain.” As recent as April this year, the State Department announced that Mohammad Bazzi has turned his business operations over to his son Wael Bazzi who is in partnership with a Belgian-based GTG to circumvent the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States.
It’s not clear whether former President Jammeh or his wife will put a legal fight against U.S. Government to keep their mansion in the United States. Jammeh now lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea where he maintained a low profile without speaking to the media since he fled The Gambia. He fled the country in January 2017 under threat of a military invasion by neighboring states to The Gambia to remove him from office after he lost the election in December 2016 conceded defeat but later withdrew his concession and cancelled the election results. On few occasions, he’d released photos and video images of himself in exile. He was also reportedly recorded on a telephone conversation he had with members of his political party — the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) — he founded and led when he was the head of state of The Gambia.
Responding to questions from The Gambia Times on the reaction of his government to actions taken by the prosecutors in the U.S., Dawda Fadera, the Gambian Ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C. said his government welcomes the news and fully supports U. S. prosecutors in their quest to dispose Jammeh of the property.
“The Government of The Gambia welcomes this development and wishes to put on record its gratitude to the U.S. Government for its tireless efforts in ensuring that the funds stolen by the former President are recovered and returned to the Gambian people. As you are aware, the property in question was purchased with Gambian funds that were looted by the former president. It is therefore obvious that the Government of The Gambia will work in tandem with the U.S. legal authorities to recover what rightly belongs to the Gambian people.”
In a statement released on Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt said “Yahya Jammeh is a former president of The Gambia who allegedly plundered hundreds of millions of dollars from his country and laundered part of those funds to corruptly acquire real estate in the United States. Our action today highlights the tireless work of the Criminal Division’s Kleptocracy Initiative and their global law enforcement partners to protect the integrity of the U.S. financial system and recover the ill-gotten gains of corrupt officials.”
It’s not clear whether the U.S. prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of the property for the sole use of the United States Government or ultimately be returned to the Gambian Government. It may as well be the first step to secure the property and then turn it over to the Government of The Gambia. From statements of the U.S. prosecutors, it also appears to be about fighting corrupt acts by officials of foreign governments.
“The seizure of this property is just another example of our continued efforts to protect the U.S. financial infrastructure by denying a safe haven for foreign kleptocrats. HSI will not tolerate our country being used by foreign officials to hide their corrupt activities and launder their illicit proceeds,” Acting Executive Associate Director Alysa Erichs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) said.
The forfeiture may as well be a coordinated effort by the two government where the legal justifications are provided by the Government of The Gambia through its activities in the Janneh Commission’s recommendations for the prosecution of Yahya Jammeh for embezzlement of public funds. The prosecutors quoted extensively from the reports of the Janneh Commission to build their case against Yahya and Zineb Jammeh, and their associates. The prosecution also seems to have the fingerprints of a coordinated efforts by the two governments.
“The Government of The Gambia has provided substantial assistance to the U.S. Government in its investigations. We will continue to collaborate with the U.S. authorities until this matter comes to its logical conclusion. The legal measures being taken by the U.S. authorities is solely aimed at prosecuting corruption and preventing impunity. The U.S. Government has in this matter and similar cases provided leadership in ensuring that officials who abuse their offices and loot public funds are pursued and punished with concrete actions to ensure that all stolen funds are returned to their countries of origin for the benefit of their people. There is no doubt that the U.S. Government is again on this path,” Ambassador Fadera said.
Its’ not clear whether the U.S. prosecutors, instead of attorneys for The Gambia Government, seeking to forfeit Jammeh’s property to the Federal Government of the United States has implications for President Barrow’s government to ultimately take ownership of the property to return to the state and people of The Gambia. Our in-house legal analyst at The Gambia Times suggests that the Government of The Gambia should join the civil suit as a party to forfeit to it Jammeh’s mansion in which case the property could be handed over to the Gambian people after the civil suit succeeds in the U.S. courts.
The Gambia Times made numerous efforts to reach Fabakary Tombong Jatta, the Interim Leader of the APRC for their reaction to actions taken by the prosecutors in the United States. All efforts to reach him turned futile.