2 British Businessmen Arrested in Connection to 6 Naval Vessel sold to Tompolo's Private Security Company

                    

Two British businessmen have been arrested on suspicion of bribing a Norwegian official alleged to be involved the controversial sale of six former naval vessels to a Nigerian private security company.

A joint investigation by the City of London’s Overseas Anti-Corruption Unit  (OACU) and their counterparts in Norway, Okokrim, examined how the former warships, including missile-torpedo boats (MTBs), ended up under the control of a former Niger Delta militant who now runs privatised national security contracts worth millions of dollars that have been authorised by the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan.

Detectives from the OACU arrested a man in his early 40s at his home in Alfreton, Derbyshire, and a man in his late 50s at an address in East Molesey, Surrey. The two are alleged to have made payments to a Norwegian civil servant totalling more than $150,000.

The money, in two separate transactions, is alleged to have been paid directly into the official’s personal bank account. The cash is alleged to have helped secure the sale of the decommissioned Norwegian Navy ships by disguising the eventual destination of the warships.

Under Norway’s ethical foreign policy rules, the direct sale of the decommissioned warships to a private Nigerian company regarded as effectively running the country’s outsourced national coast guard, could have proved difficult.