Oil Baron Walter Wagbatsoma Surfaces In Abuja After Abrupt Release From UK Prison

Nigerian Businessman and oilman, Mr. Walter Wagbatsoma, who his friends and associates say was wrongly convicted for money laundering in the United Kingdom has been suddenly released from prison barely one year into his three years and six months prison sentence. He was convicted in January 2018 but had appealed his conviction.

Wagbatsoma, 47, the Managing Director of Ontario Oil and Gas Ltd, according to prison officials Monday that he could go home. “They just told him he was a free man and that he should buy his ticket and return to Nigeria if he wanted to… He was perplexed and shocked because it was unexpected… You know he has been saying he was wrongly convicted,” a source close to him said via telephone.

It was not clear why he was released abruptly as at the time of writing this report.

THEWILL had in 2016 reported how the oil trader sourced and bought foreign exchange from a money dealer in Dubai through an intermediary without doing due diligence. It turned out the moneys he bought and had transferred into his international business account were part of the over £12 million stolen from the Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust by a syndicate led by a Nigerian in the UK.

The multi-millionaire businessman was detained in Germany on Monday 6th June 2016, following the issue of a European Arrest Warrant by Lincolnshire Police and was extradited to the UK on Thursday 30th June where he was charged with conspiracy to launder money.

He subsequently stood trial in the UK while also facing another trial in Nigeria for alleged petroleum subsidy fraud. His conviction in Nigeria however did a lot of damage to his case in the UK even though that conviction was later upturned by an appellate court.

Information has it that Mr. Wagbatsoma has returned to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.