Julian Crowley
During Sani Abacha’s five year reign (1993–1998) as military dictator of Nigeria he and his family managed to transfer national funds of up to £5 billion ($8 billion) into foreign bank accounts. Listed by Transparency International as the fourth most corrupt leader in recent history, Abacha was named as being responsible for wholesale looting of up to 10% of Nigeria’s national income. Following his sudden death in 1998 — possibly due to poisoning — the Nigerian government was able to recover $2 billion of the funds. Abacha’s family insists to this day that the vast amount of money was generated by wholly legal means.
