Just in: Maina’s son bags 14 years imprisonment for money laundering

A federal high court in Abuja has sentenced Faisal, son of former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Taskforce Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, to 14 years in prison.

Justice Okon Abang, in the judgment delivered on Thursday, found Faisal guilty on money laundering charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Abang held that the anti-graft agency was able to establish that Faisal operated a fictitious bank account with the United Bank for Africa through which his father, Maina, laundered the sum of N58.1m.

The court noted that the money deposited into the account that was operated in the name of Alhaji Faisal Farm 2 was subsequently withdrawn by Faisal and his father between October 2013 and June 2019.

The judge said he was satisfied that the EFCC proved all the essential ingredients of the charge, adding that the defendant reasonably ought to have known that inflows into the bank account formed proceeds of an unlawful act by his father.

On count one, Faisal was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, 14 years on count two and another five-year sentence on count three. The sentence is to run concurrently starting from judgment day.

Abang also ordered that 21-year-old Faisal, who had since June 24, 2020 failed to appear for his trial, be arrested anywhere he is found in Nigeria and remanded in any Correctional Service Centre to serve his jail term.

“The Federal Government shall arrest the convict anywhere found in the country and commit him to serve his jail term, if not found in the country, the FG shall legally or lawfully commence extradition proceedings against him,” the judge held.

The court ordered that the company through which the money was laundered, Alhaji Faisal Farm 2, be wound up, and the funds in it forfeited to the government.