Former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez has been sentenced to 11 years in prison, following his conviction on bribery and corruption charges.

Last July, a jury found Menendez guilty on 16 counts for accepting gifts, including gold bars, cash and a Mercedes-Benz, in exchange for helping foreign governments.

Prosecutors were seeking at least a 15-year sentence, citing in court documents the “rare gravity” of the ex-senator’s crimes.

Lawyers for Menendez, 71, had called for a shorter sentence paired with community service.

“Somewhere along the way, you became, I’m sorry to say, a corrupt politician,” US Judge Sidney Stein said before handing down Menendez’s sentence, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

Before receiving his sentence, Menendez cried while addressing the courtroom.

“Other than family, I have lost everything I ever cared about,” he said, according to court reporters. “Every day I’m awake is a punishment.”

He then asked the judge “to temper your sword of justice with the mercy of a lifetime of duty”.

Menendez’s son, Rob Menendez, a Democratic congressman, and his daughter, MSNBC anchor Alicia Menendez, were seated in court behind their father.

Earlier on Wednesday, two of Menendez’s co-conspirators were sentenced in the case.

Fred Daibes, a New Jersey real estate developer who prosecutors say delivered gold and cash to the senator, was given a sentence of seven years in prison and fined $1.75m (£1.4m).

Wael Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman, who prosecutors say brokered a deal between Menendez and the Egyptian government, received more than eight years in prison and was fined $1.25m.

Menendez has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has said he plans to appeal the guilty verdict.

The New Jersey senator, who used to lead the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, resigned from the upper chamber in August.

The guilty verdict came after a nine-week trial, during which jurors saw evidence that Menendez accepted gifts including gold bars worth over $100,000 and more than $480,000 in cash, found by FBI agents inside Menendez’s home.

In exchange for the bribes, prosecutors said Menendez helped secure millions of dollars in US aid for Egypt.

His lawyers argued the gifts did not qualify as bribes, saying prosecutors failed to prove Menendez took any actions as a result of the bribes.

The former senator was also convicted for trying to influence criminal probes involving his two co-defendants, Hana and Daibes.

A third businessman involved in the case, Jose Uribe, has pleaded guilty and is expected to be sentenced later this year. He testified against Menendez during the trial.

Nadine Menendez, the ex-senator’s wife, has also been accused of acting as a participant in the scheme by shuttling messages and bribes between the three men and Egyptian officials.

Her trial was delayed so she could undergo breast cancer treatment and will begin in March. She has pleaded not guilty.

New facts have emerged on how Access Bank clandestinely granted N1 billion loan to a going concern, DDSS International Company limited, using a property belonging to another company, MOB Integrated Services, run by Gbolahan Obanikoro, as collateral without the owner’s consent or knowledge.

Details of the loan provided by insiders, revealed that the property, owned by MOB Integrated Services, was first used to guarantee a loan of N193,139,200 to Balmoral International Limited on May 21, 2013, from the now acquired Diamond Bank.

The credit facilities, referenced AOB/BB/VO/AD/031/05/2013, also included N120 million term loan and N20 million import duty facility.

The term of the loan was 180 days from the date of disbursement at 20 per cent per annum, while a third-party legal mortgage on the property located at 40B Bourdillion Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, was used as security.

However, long after Balmoral had repaid and serviced the loan, the bank, without recourse to the property owner, used the same collateral for another loan, completely unknown to the property owner.

The loan of N1 billion was granted to DDSS International Company Limited via an offer letter of May 16, 2019, using the same property as security.

The letter was signed by Bukola Shoyombo, a Relationship Officer in Access Bank Business Banking Division, and Oreoluwa Roy-Egbokhan, a Relationship Manager.

The purpose was to enable DDSS International finance the purchase of different brands of cars and luxury vehicles for sale to individuals and corporate organisations.

The tenor of the loan was for 60 months at 15 per cent interest per annum, subject to review based on prevailing market conditions.

The bank claimed that the collateral was a “comprehensive third-party legal mortgage on property located at 40B Bourdillion Road, Ikoyi. The property is currently with the bank and perfection has been concluded,” the bank claimed in the offer letter.

The implication, the insider, explained, was that the bank granted DDSS International the loan without collateral, because the property was not theirs and the owner had no relationship whatsoever with the company.

A complaint of stealing was later filed against the bank and others, following which the Lagos State Government filed charges against the Managing Director, Bolaji Agbede, and three others.

In the four-count charge pending before Justice Ibironke Harrison of the Lagos State High Court, sitting in Tafa Balewa Square, the Director, Directorate of Public Prosecutions, Mrs A. O. Oluwafemi, accused the bank and others of conspiracy, stealing, and attempted theft.

The defendants were the Managing Director of Balmoral International Limited, Adejare Adegbenro; Balmoral International Limited, Access Bank, Bolaji Agbede and DDSS International Company Limited.

The charge read: “Count 1: Conspiracy to Commit a felony to wit: stealing contrary to Section 411 of the Criminal Law, Ch. C17, Vol.3, Laws of Lagos State, 2015.

“Particulars of Offence: Adejare Adgbenro (m), Balmoral International Limited, Access Bank and Bolaji Agbede (m) on or about the 24th Day of September 2013 at Plot 1261, Adeota Hopewell Street, Victoria Island, Lagos State in the Lagos Judicial Division, conspired to commit a felony to wit: Stealing.”

The charge stated that they conspired and “stole the property of MOB Integrated Services at Plot 40b, Bourdillion Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, by using it as a security for a loan without his consent and subsequently entering into a consent judgment.”

The defendants were also charged with attempted stealing, contrary to Section 21 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The prosecution said the defendants, on or about May 26, 2019, at Plot 1262, Adeola Hopewell Street, Victoria Island, Lagos State, in the Lagos Judicial Division, “attempted to steal the property of MOB Integrated Services at Plot 40B, Bourdillion Road, Ikoyi, Lagos by offering and granting DDSS International Company Limited a credit facility of N1billion only.”

However, following the defendants’ failure to appear for their arraignment, Justice Harrison ordered their arrest.

The judge issued the arrest warrant after prosecution counsel, Uthman Rilwan, informed the court that despite being served with a notice, the defendants failed to appear.

After issuing the warrant, the judge directed that it be executed against the principal officers of the defendant companies.

She adjourned until February 24, 2025, for arraignment.

The West has always been fascinated with Africa’s wealth, beginning from the slave trade to the present. King Leopold and the Congo comes readily to mind.

An intriguing documentary, The Empire Pays Back, broadcast on the UK’s Channel 4 in 2005 expounded on Britain’s debt to Africa. It was a precursor, in many ways, to the now strident calls for restitution and reparation.

In a scathing piece by Richard Drayton published by The Guardian, he made the case that “Britain was the principal slaving nation of the modern world.” Des Eskin’s book, The Brutish Empire: Four Centuries of Colonial Atrocities as well as Dan Hick’s The Brutish Museums

The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution extend the conversation.

In the present century, China has entered the fray with the LSE highlighting the continuing scramble for Africa: “If we separate African countries into two groups – the resource-rich countries and the resource-poor countries – the nature of resource endowment (rich or poor) is a strong explainer of the divergent distribution of Chinese FDIs across Africa. The resource-rich countries receive an overwhelming share of Chinese FDIs in Africa.”

This introduction is important in situating the decades’ old conversation around OPL 245 and Dan Etete’s role in the matter. The overwhelming sentiment is one of corruption and self-serving opportunism but it is not new. Where resources are available, the capitalist and imperialist vultures of the West will circle above.

If you ask the average enlightened Nigerian whether he knows Dan Etete, his answer will almost certainly dwell on the reference to Malabu Oil and OPL 245. It’s quite remarkable though that if one should probe deeper, the bloke will not be able to say what exactly the issue is.

Truth is foreign interests and the Federal Government had not been up to par on the transaction in many respects. The story almost always appears to end on the note of reading that Dan Etete was found guilty in France. But of course, take a detour from the prevailing narrative and you will discover that the French granted him a full pardon.

So, why is Dan Etete always referred to in negative terms? As they would say in popular lingo, “Wetin dis Dan Etete do sef?”

What exactly happened with the Malabu Oil and the OPL 245 transaction? How come Dan Etete keeps being accused of corruption when the Federal Government, a foreign government and a respectable British bank certified the payment of the sum of $1.3bn to him and his company?

Let’s take a trip to the website of ENI, the Italian oil giant that was part of the transaction where an explanation is presented regarding the payment of $1.092 billion as compensation for the revocation of Malabu Oil’s rights to OPL 245 after years of legal wrangling and contentious back-and-forth:

“To break the deadlock, the FGN’s then Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, proposed the following solution to the parties: first, the FGN would be the sole party to the contract with Eni and Shell; and second, the FGN would settle the ongoing legal disputes with Shell and Malabu by paying the latter compensation for giving up the rights to OPL 245.

“On 29 April 2011, Eni, Shell and the FGN signed a Resolution Agreement that transferred the rights to OPL 245 to Eni and Shell. This agreement included settlements made solely between Eni and Shell and the FGN, represented by the Ministers of Petroleum, Justice, and Finance.

“As part of this agreement, Shell and Eni paid $1.3 billion (the price plus the signature bonus) to an escrow account opened by the Nigerian Government with JP Morgan in London.

“During the same period, the FGN paid Malabu $1.092 billion as compensation for revoking the rights to OPL 245. Malabu dropped its complaints against the Nigerian Government.”

In order to fully understand the story, let’s go back to the beginning, to 1998 when General Sani Abacha, the man in the dark glasses, was Head of State and Dan Etete was Petroleum Minister, pushing the vision to increase indigenous participation of Nigerians in the oil and gas industry.

It was on April 29, 1998 that the FGN under Sani Abacha awarded OPL 245 to Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd with Minister of Petroleum Dan Etete amongst the shareholders. Exploration was hindered between 1998 and 2011 due to legal disputes and international arbitrations intervolving the FGN, Shell, and Malabu.

It is noteworthy that in 1999 when the FGN revoked the licenses of 31 OPLs, Malabu’s OPL 245 was not included in the list. In fact the company was asked to commence exploration. However, political intrigues supervened when on July 2, 2001 the FGN revoked the granting of exploration rights to Malabu without providing any warning or giving a reason for its decision, and reallocated the rights to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the state oil company.

Malabu Oil reacted on September 10, 2003 by filing a lawsuit against the Nigerian Government and Shell. Then on November 30, 2006 the FGN, NNPC and Malabu entered into a settlement agreement whereby OPL 245 was again allocated to Malabu, only for Shell to respond by suing the FGN.

The almost intractable deadlock was resolved on April 29, 2011 when the FGN, Shell and Eni signed the Resolution Agreement that transferred the rights to OPL 245 to Eni and Shell. This led to the FGN paying $1.092 to Malabu as compensation for revoking the rights, and Malabu thereafter dropped its complaints against the Nigerian Government.

A report by WoodMackenzie provides some context as to why this case has continued to excite conversation: “Deepwater OPL 245 is located in the southern Niger Delta. Two large oil and gas discoveries, Etan and Zabazaba, were made in 2005 and 2006. The block is believed to contain around 1 billion barrels of oil of discovered and prospective resources.”

One billion is a huge number and its estimated value of $3.5bn makes OPL 245 one of the most lucrative basins in Nigeria and thus the interest from oil giants across Europe, and with so much at stake, the stakes, pardon the pun, will be very high with accusations of corruption flying high, and in such instance any Nigerian official involved in the process such as Dan Etete, will always be left with the short end of the stick in a business deal with foreigners.

In a 2019 story in The Africa Report, Dan Etete who rarely grants interviews to the press asked a rhetorical question of his interlocutor: “Shell and Malabu have always fought each other. How could two enemies have united to corrupt the government?”

Dan Etete’s story alongside the ensuing controversies around OPL 245 reads in many ways like fiction, and it is to a fictional tale that we will now repair for context in understanding how Africans are corrupt while those from the West are investors.

Those interested can look up British writer and politician Jeffrey Archer’s short story entitled “Clean Sweep Ignatius” to read about the West’s view of corruption among Africa’s political elite.

But ironically, the man who wrote that tongue-in-cheek story ended up being sentenced to four years imprisonment for perjury and perverting the course of justice after having served as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1985 to 1986 under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher!

There you have it; the stereotype that foreign interests must perforce find a black sheep to heap the blames on when doing business in Africa, especially Nigeria. The result is that we end up missing the essence and dwelling on the concocted accident built around the hapless black sheep.

For decades, Dan Etete has been in the eye of the storm, but to what end? The fact is OPL 245 was a very profitable block such that multiform interests wanted a piece of the pie. JP Morgan, Shell, Eni and the FGN have since sorted matters out without Dan Etete being a cog.

The Nigerian should not end up as the butt of every joke as depicted by Peter Enahoro in his book How To Be A Nigerian where an English gentleman eating chocolate in a London restaurant looked at a Nigerian who was noisily chewing on chicken bones.

Excuse me Mister, if you eat the bones, what do you feed your dogs in Nigeria?

Aware that the question was not innocent, the smart Nigerian pointed at the white man’s plate and answered: “Chocolate,”– thus countering the single story!