From: Bob Minton <bob@minton.org>
Date: Tue, 09 May 2000 12:10:47 -0400

The article below from NIGERIA TODAY ONLINE reflects the fact that Scientology's Black PR campaign against me tries to create a time warp between 2 periods in Nigeria's recent past, one of which I was involved with and another in which I had no involvement. The "Church" sic of Scientology has convinced John Fashanu that the periods are connected when they are not; and they want you to believe that I created a structure that allowed General Babangida and General Abacha to steal money from Nigeria. Abacha came to power in Nigeria in Novemeber 1993 --- 8 months after we closed the books on the buyback. No monies flowed though the corporate structure we set up to conduct the buyback that benefitted General Babangida in any way or for that matter ANY Nigerian government official or ANY Nigerians.

I am dismayed and surprised that Nigerian Government officials today, who were involved in the Minton-Schmidt buyback for Nigeria from March 1988 to March 1993, particularly the current Minister of Finance Ismalia Usman have not spoken out to stop the lies from Scientology through John Fashanu. If necessary, I will go to Nigeria myself and educate the Nigerian Government and press as to the reality of the entire buyback operation which was the most beneficial buyback in history for any country in the world.

Until the Nigerian Government repudiates the lies of Scientology and Fashanu, I will release factual information as to the buyback operation and let Mr. Fashanu, his Scientology puppet masters and those silent Nigerian government officials deal with it accordingly.

Firstly, here is a complete Sources and Uses of Funds report for the entire buyback which reflects every penny in and out:

NIGERIAN BUYBACK OPERATION
SOURCES AND USES OF FUNDS STATEMENT
FOR THE PERIOD
29 MARCH 1988 TO 26 MARCH 1993

SOURCES OF FUNDS

CENTRAL BANK RESERVES $1,111,641,323
BUYBACK PROCEEDS: 1,205,176,211
(A) COST OF BANK DEBT ACQUIRED 998,735,049
(B) REALIZED FOREIGN EXCHANGE GAIN 31,931,934
(C) PROFIT ON SALE OF BANK DEBT 174,509,228

NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION 60,000,000
INCOME: 464,401,403
(A) INTEREST ON DEPOSITS $8,708,911
(B) PROMISSORY NOTE INTEREST 108,787,088
(C) BANK DEBT INTEREST 346,905,404

TOTAL $2,841,218,936

USES OF FUNDS

PURCHASES OF DEBT $1,548,577,891
(A) PROMISSORY NOTES $354,458,094
(B) BANK DEBT 998,735,049
(C) GOVERNMENT DEBT 195,384,748

BUYBACK PROCEEDS PAID TO CENTRAL BANK 1,205,176,211
BUYBACK INTEREST PAID TO CENTRAL BANK 3,565,313

BANK DEBT HOLDING FEES 4,573,913
BANK DEBT EXIT FEES 3,771,393

PAYMENTS TO NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION 14,757,249
PROMISSORY NOTE REPURCHASE FROM NNPC 60,000,000
PUT INTEREST PAID TO NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORP. 138,688
TRANSFER TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA 658,278
CASH ON HAND 0

TOTAL $2,841,218,936

Coming soon will be a complete list of all 325 debt purchases and that will be followed by an account statement of the Central Bank of Nigeria from March 1988 to the end of the buyback in March 1993.

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NIGERIA TODAY ONLINE

Daily briefing on key political & economic events affecting Nigeria Available by fax and e-mail subscription Monday-Friday (Except public holidays) Provided by Phone News International, 18 Hyrstdene, South Croydon, Surrey CR2 6NR Tel: +44(0)208 406 7730 or +44(0)208 279 2078 Mobile: +44(0)795 626 3710 or +44(0)795 626 3704 Fax: +44(0)870 131 6046 E-Mail: Phon enews@aol.com

Tuesday 9 May 2000

LUXEMBOURG FREEZES ABACHA'S $602 MILLION

Federal government officials late yesterday gave a cautious welcome to reports that Luxembourg authorities had frozen accounts worth 671 million euros (602 million dollars) linked to the late military ruler, General Sani Abacha. "If this is true it is excellent news but I do not have a confirmation as yet," Dr Doyin Okupe, spokesman for Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told reporters in Abuja. In Luxembourg, the deputy state prosecutor Georges Heisbourg told the media that the authorities had frozen eight accounts in the Luxembourg subsidiary of an unnamed German bank. The accounts were in the name of different off-shore companies linked to Abacha, who ruled Nigeria with an iron fist from November 1993 to his death in "The funds confiscated correspond to money diverted into the pocket of the Abacha family," Heisbourg said. "Searches have been carried out and the case is soon to be sent to the Nigerian government," he said. The freezing of the accounts brings to almost 1.3 billion dollars the amount of money linked to Abacha now frozen in banks in Europe. In January, Switzerland agreed to a request for judicial cooperation from Nigeria over bank accounts frozen last October that were linked to the former dictator and his family and associates. The Swiss Federal Police said the sums involved in the accounts in Switzerland amount to about 645 million dollars and that the figure could grow.

The Swiss lawyer for the Nigerian government, Enrico Manfrini, has said a total of 2.2 billion dollars was embezzled and deposited in Switzerland by Abacha and senior officials of his regime. In 1998, the military regime that succeeded Abacha said members of the Abacha family had agreed to give back monies worth 750 million dollars that was held in cash by family members.All the money said to have been stolen from public funds. Estimates of the total stolen by the Abacha family and associates during the four-and-a-half year regime run up to eight billion dollars. Abacha, a former defence chief who took power from a hand-picked civilian regime in November 1993, died of a suspected heart attack on June 8, 1998. His eldest son, Mohammed, is currently in jail on charges of involvement in the 1996 murder of Kudirat Abiola, the wife of the late prominent politician Moshood Abiola.

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I'm repeating this post of mine from a few days ago for reference purposes.

On Sat, 06 May 2000 02:33:48 GMT, average_lurker <average_lurker@my-deja.com> wrote:

>Having been employed in the securities industry for 41 years, I know
>something about markets.

Snip

That was a good post but not altogether reflective of the Nigerian buyback I was involved in which I will address in minute.

BUT, in Diane Richardson's follow-ups to this post she has craftily (on purpose or accidentally --- you be the judge) tried to cloak the involvement of the Church of Scientology and Rilwanu Lukman,(the OPEC Secretary-General Scientologists) by laying it all off on Fashanu.

Fashnu IS connected to the Church of Scientology in that he or an agent of his paid Peter Franks and David Lee, the Scientology detectives, over USD 1.0 million for what is the Fashanu Report.

IT IS A SCIENTOLOGY DA REPORT --- pure and simple. On the surface, it has meat and that meat is the money-laundering aspect. Money-laundering is something authorities in all countries listen to. However, peel away a layer or 2 of the onion and even an idiot can see that the buyback business was never in any way connected to anything involving money-laundering in Nigeria or elsewhere in the world.

"The Scientology Fashanu Report" is a worthless piece of crap that even the PRESENT Nigerian Government has no interest in pursuing as it relates to anything to do with the buyback I was involved with. Scientology is feeding this bullshit everywhere, even to Washington but nobody is listening which is why you can read it all on ARS. Soon you'll be able to read it in Scientology's FREEDOM Magazine because no one else will bother to cover the story. ( I have spoken with some Nigerian Journalist and retract the previous statement made here about Nigerian journalists.)

Now to the buyback matter.

There were really three buybacks going on simultaneously.

A. A buyback of Nigerian trade debts. These debts arose from trade transactions at a time when Nigeria did not have sufficient foreign currency to pay their trade debts. The debts which were like 90-180 day Letters of credit were rescheduled for 20 years and the Central Bank of Nigeria became the obligor rather than the original creditor. This debt was held by multinational companies all over the globe in the form of Promissory notes of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

B. A buyback of Nigerian "Bank Debt". These were loans made in US Dollars or other foreign currencies to the Government of Nigeria by international banks. Nigeria defaulted on payment at one time on these loans and international banks lost confidence in Nigeria. This debt was held by major international banks.

C. A buyback of Government to Government debt. These loans were Government to Government debt that was rescheduled under what is called the "Paris Club." Without over complicating the matter, the Paris Club is basically a mechanism used by major western governments to reschedule problematic loans to developing countries. We bought Nigerian debt owed to major OECD countries including the United States. ( Diane is also corrected on this point.)

The total amount of debt purchased for Nigeria by any companies which I or my fellow shareholders was involved with amounted to US Dollars 4,447,524,747 at a cost to Nigeria of US Dollars 1,548,577,891. That means an average price to Nigeria of 34.819 percent. The companies I was involved with made a fraction of one percent commission on the debt we purchased NOT 30+ percent. Welcome to reality folks.

There was never a time between March 1988 and March 1993 when I was involved in this buyback that you could not sit at your desk and see the price quoted for Nigerian debt on a Reuters screen. Every day the price was transparent. Every item in "The Fashanu Scientology Report" is based on the lie that we bought at 10 percent and sold for 40+ percent to Nigeria. We bought Nigerian debt from these diverse group of creditors in 325 different transactions over 5 years and NEVER paid less than 20 percent for any debt nor more than 43 percent for any category A & B debt mentioned above. The price for category C debt was somewhat higher due to the specialized character of the debt.

Nevertheless, and I repeat, the total amount of debt purchased for Nigeria by any companies which I or my fellow shareholders was involved with amounted to US Dollars 4,447,524,747 at a cost to Nigeria of US Dollars 1,548,577,891. That means an average price to Nigeria of 34.819 percent.

The Nigerian Central Bank led by the then Governor Ahmed, Deputy Governor Ismalia Usman (today, Nigeria's Minister of Finance) and many others like a Mr. Animashawan (sp) were the most honest people I have ever dealt with. They were a credit to Nigeria and totally atypical of the African stereotype Scientology and others would have you believe. The only crooks I have ever dealt with in all my international finance business were American bankers.

General Babangida (IBB) who was the Nigerian ruler when we did this business, made a very wise decision to approve the buyback plan we presented to the Central Bank of Nigeria. It saved Nigeria billions of US Dollars and no matter how much the Church of Scientology tries to spin it, the business was a free market solution to a difficult problem. All hail free markets :-)

Wait for Scientology's FREEDOM Magazine story on this and you'll know that this bullshit is the Scientology DA story to end all Scientology DA stories because the Church of Scientology run by David Miscavige is ready to dissolve.

Bob Minton