Atiku-linked lobbying firm submits Tinubu’s forfeiture records to Trump

A Washington-based lobbying firm retained by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has disclosed that it has begun sharing documents relating to a decades-old United States civil forfeiture case involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu with officials in the Donald Trump administration, members of Congress and congressional staff.

The firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., said it is providing records from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning allegations connected to a 1993 civil forfeiture proceeding involving funds linked to Tinubu.

The lobbying firm was engaged by Atiku, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, in March under a 12-month contract reportedly worth $1.2 million.

The agreement covers advocacy, diplomatic engagement and efforts to present Atiku’s positions on issues relating to Nigeria-United States relations.

In a post on X, the firm said it had held discussions with officials within the US government and congressional offices before distributing more than 60 pages of DOJ records and related court documents.

According to the firm, some officials were previously unaware of Tinubu’s forfeiture records, and the documents were provided to make the records available for review.

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“Following discussions with members of the Trump administration, Congress and senior congressional staff, we began providing more than 60 pages of Department of Justice documents concerning the DOJ’s allegations relating to Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s alleged involvement in a heroin trafficking investigation spanning the late 1980s and early 1990s,” the firm stated.

Among the materials circulated is a document titled, “Background and Chronology of the 1993 U.S. Department of Justice Heroin-Proceeds Forfeiture Case and the 2023 FOIA Litigation Concerning Alleged Heroin Trafficking from Nigeria to the United States Involving Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the current President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

According to the chronology, the DOJ’s 1993 civil forfeiture action stemmed from an investigation into a suspected drug trafficking organisation operating between Nigeria and the United States.

The documents reference a case filed at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, identified as United States v. Funds in Account No. 263226700 et al., involving funds the government alleged were proceeds of narcotics trafficking or connected to money laundering activities.

The records identify Tinubu, Adegboyega Mueez Akande and Abiodun Agbele as individuals named in the government’s allegations.

According to the chronology, US investigators examined activities between 1988 and 1991 and alleged that proceeds from a drug trafficking network were deposited into bank accounts in the United States associated with Tinubu.

The documents further state that the DOJ alleged Tinubu controlled multiple bank accounts and that some of the funds were linked to proceeds of unlawful activities.

The chronology also describes Akande as an associate of Tinubu alleged by the DOJ to have links to the organisation under investigation, while Agbele was identified as someone Tinubu said he knew through Akande.

The DOJ subsequently filed a civil forfeiture action in 1993 seeking the seizure of the funds. According to the chronology, the matter ended in a civil settlement, with a portion of the funds forfeited to the US government.

The documents also refer to subsequent legal efforts to obtain records relating to the investigation.

They state that journalist Aaron Greenspan filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in 2023 seeking records from several US federal agencies connected to the investigation.

According to the chronology, a US District Court in Washington, D.C., ruled in 2025 that some agencies could not rely on a blanket refusal to confirm or deny the existence of records and directed them to process parts of the FOIA request in accordance with legal requirements.

The lobbying firm said the FOIA litigation remains ongoing and that the documents were being shared with congressional committees for “informational and oversight purposes,” citing Nigeria’s strategic relationship with the United States.

The 1993 forfeiture case also featured in legal challenges to the outcome of Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election.

Atiku Abubakar and former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi had argued before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that Tinubu’s involvement in the forfeiture proceedings affected his eligibility to contest the election.

However, the PEPC dismissed the argument, holding that the petitioners failed to establish that Tinubu had been convicted of any criminal offence in the United States.

The court also ruled that the forfeiture proceeding was civil in nature and that the evidence presented did not prove that Tinubu made false declarations to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by not disclosing the matter.