The diligence of the Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC together with officials of the federal saved Nigeria from losing a whooping sum of $125,000,000: 00 (One Hundred and Twenty-Five Million us Dollars) to an alleged international syndicate led by Messrs. Ramirez and Mr Jose Salazar Tinajero and their company Samano Sa De Cv.
SAMANO contacted officials of the federal of Nigeria sometime in 2015 with information in respect of 48 Million Barrels of Nigerian Bonny Light petroleum allegedly stolen from Nigeria and stored in various ports and terminals within the People’s Republic of China. SAMANO offered to get the alleged stolen crude upon its recovery.
Even though its claim was difficult to believe given the strict procedures underpinning petroleum handling and export operations, the federal of Nigeria together with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) began to verify these claims and requested for evidence thereto effect, which was never provided by SOMANO.
Notwithstanding the failure to supply evidence to support its claims, relevant officials of the govt were mandated to proceed to China to verify the claims of the existence of the said stolen Nigerian petroleum .
The said delegation discovered that the SAMANO’s claim was false and baseless. Consequently, the govt severed communications with the syndicate.
Miffed by this, Messrs. Ramirez and Mr Jose Salazar Tinajero, acting as agents of SAMANO, resorted to the blackmail and intimidation of key officials of the govt and therefore the NNPC threatening to form public the very fact that the said 48 million barrels of stolen Nigerian petroleum in China recovered, sold and therefore the refore the proceeds therefrom looted by some officialdom and the NNPC when it had been aware that this was untrue.
They also demanded $125,000,000:00 (One Hundred and Twenty-Five Million Dollars) from said officialdom , which was conveniently and rightfully ignored.
Thereafter, NNPC reported this case of attempted blackmail to the Department of State Security and therefore the Nigeria police . They, upon investigation, discovered that SAMANO and its agents were international fraudsters.
Mr Ramirez, as an example , was indicted by the U.S. District Court within the Southern District of Texas because the mastermind of a scheme resulting in the loss of several many dollars through various mail and wire frauds between 2010 and 2013.In fact, there’s a warrant for Mr Ramirez’s arrest and extradition to the us to face criminal justice on account of the said fraud schemes.
Mr. Jose Salazar Tinajero, a co-conspirator, has been in and out of jail in South America thanks to the involvement of SAMANO in elaborate smuggling and concealment scams.
Mr Ramirez is additionally facing two separate and unconnected criminal charges at the supreme court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja responsible No: FCT/HC/CR/147/2016 and therefore the Federal supreme court , Lagos responsible No: ID/2763/2016.
Both charges were preferred against Mr Ramirez by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for economic and financial crimes.
The said Mr. Ramirez and his cohorts have since been charged to many courts in Nigeria for criminal offences starting from fraud, forgery, extortion, blackmail, conspiracy, etc.
The charge which relates to the plan to fleece the federal and NNPC is Charge No.: FCT/HC/BU/CR/134/2019 between the Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Marco Antonio Ramirez & 4 Others pending before the supreme court of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.
But for the due diligence of the management of the NNPC, the federal would have lost a whopping sum of $125,000,000:00 (One Hundred and Twenty-Five Million us Dollars) to the present international syndicate .
The NNPC is currently consulting its lawyers Afe Babalola & Co. during a bid to require corresponding legal action(s) against the said syndicate for damages done to its reputation and its officials as a results of the false publications by the syndicate.
