• Why the oil magnate will never come to Nigeria anytime soon
“If you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence,” said Charles Bukowski, German-born U.S. writer. Walter Wagbatsoma probably knows who his friends are now. Thatdue to his ignorance in Forex transactions, the oil magnate landed himself in troubled waters is no longer hot-button news. At this moment the relatives and friends of Walter are extremely happy that his incarceration was not a tale of another long walk to freedom. As you read, the Managing Director (MD) of Ontario Oil and Gas Ltd, who was caught on the barbed end of justice has been given a bail in the UK. But Walter is not coming to Nigeria anytime soon. It so unfortunate that an erroneous decision he made in the past has mutated to haunt him like an explosion of virulent cells.
You couldn’t have forgotten so soon when Walter was charged in the United Kingdom (UK) by the Economic Crime Unit of Lincolnshire Police, in connection with a £12 million NHS trusts fraud.
Findings revealed that Walter may have unknowingly purchased “dirty” foreign exchange from an anonymous source through an intermediary in Dubai, United Arab Emirates without proper due diligence on the source of the funds before it was wired into his company’s offshore trading account. Unknown to him, the Forex was part of the NHS trusts fund being investigated in the UK. The fund was later traced to his account as the investigation continued, according to a source.
Walter was allegedly contacted about the investigation by the British authorities few months ago. Although he was initially shaken by the development, the Ontario Oil head honcho had been cooperating with investigators and even hired attorneys to represent him in the matter. At the beginning of his travail, Walter was reportedly detained in Germany on a red notice by Interpol on the matter. The multi-millionaire businessman was detained in Germany on Monday June 6, 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 and appeared at Lincoln Magistrates Court on Friday, July 1. The investigation, named Operation Tarlac, commenced in September 2011 following a report of fraud and money laundering in excess of £12m involving Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
