P&ID: U.S. Court Allows Nigeria To Request Document From VR Capital In $9.8 Billion Suit

Nigeria has been granted access to request documents from VR Capital Group Ltd., the part owner of P&ID that received a $9.8 billion arbitration award that the federal government is fighting to reverse.

According to Bloomberg,  Paul Engelmayer, a US District Judge on May 14, ordered that the federal government could subpoena information from the VR Capital four subsidiaries and three of its directors.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) intends to use the data in the probe of  British Virgin Islands-registered Process and Industrial Developments Ltd and other alleged corrupt government officials including ex- president Goodluck Jonathan, former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison- Madueke, her predecessor, ex- petroleum minister Rilwani Lukman and ex- first lady Patience Jonathan.

The government application was aimed at showing that a gas- supply contract with P&ID under ex-President Jonathan, was a fraud and designed to fail by the company and the said government officials.

The dispute between Nigeria and P&ID intensified when a U.K. judge ruled that P&ID could enforce a 2017 court verdict that the government breached the contract on gas – supply between both parties.

In an earlier report, P&ID had denied any fault, claiming  that the government was trying not to fulfil its legal obligation to pay $9.8 billion arbitration, which is the resulting amount including interest.

The contract expects P&ID to  build a gas-processing plant, while the government was to supply the raw material for the deal, “the only thing P&ID engineered was a fraudulent arbitration claim,” Nigeria said in a filing.

The EFCC said its investigations revealed that P&ID admitted wiping out records “in or around January 2017” and VR Capital is “a logical source” for recovering the data information, the filing said, but VR Capital could contest the  subpoena.

iNHouse Communications, a London based  public relation firm representing P&ID, told Bloomberg that  Nigeria’s, “efforts to seek information on a crime that never occurred from a party that was never involved with P&ID until years after the alleged events is prima facie evidence that it has no case at all,” adding that, “the claim that P&ID deliberately concealed documents by destroying them is totally false.”