If true, it could only be called blood money. At the time when thousands were dying of the ebola virus a group of Lebanese men offered Anne Welsh of the Obasanjo Foundation a huge sum of money in the form of a donation. The only catch, however was they would get half of the money back. In essence a money laundering deal.
Rather than being shocked and ending the conversation, London-based former chief executive officer of the Obasanjo Foundation, Anne Welsh gave her terms of 30% and said she would rather conclude the deal in a Nigerian bank as they would not ask too many questions.
The Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation has suddenly sacked her, following video evidence of this deal and the insinuations she made in the video that she had been involved in money laundering activities for many years.
Below is the video:
Welsh, a former investment banker, is said to have first met the former president during a conference in Brussels, Belgium in 2011 when she was the Chairperson of the Sickle Cell Society.
The video footage, which was secretly shot by one of the participants at a United Kingdom meeting in December 2014, showed how Welsh allegedly plotted a $4.9m (N980m) scheme to exploit the Ebola Virus Disease tragedy in West Africa through helping a group of ‘Lebanese businessmen’ who wished to donate money to Obasanjo Foundation for some work in Sierra Leone.
The video, which was obtained by SaharaReporters and released on Youtube, revealed that the group of businessmen proposed that they would make a donation of $2m (N400m) to the foundation if it helped it launder the balance of $2.9m.
Welsh calmly assured the potential ‘donors’ that it would not be a problem as she was well-grounded in the art of being discreet.
“I had to go through training, through president Obasanjo, political training for one year to become discreet,” she said in the video.
She added, “Sometimes, we get dollars from people who give money to our foundation and they say they don’t want it to be known that they donated the money, but they want to have a letter on our letterhead paper and a letter from Obasanjo just to say ‘Thank you for your kind donations to the foundation for the work to support Ebola’. That’s it. That is what we normally do.”
The group, however, told her they did not care how the money given to the foundation was spent as long as their interests were protected.
Welsh then demanded from the group an interest of 30 per cent of the $2.9m. “At least 30 per cent; think about the hard work I’m going to put into this, you will be so grateful to me,” she proposed.
The video also showed that the group agreed to give her the 30 per cent, which was $900,000 (N180m), and detailed how the money would be transferred via a Nigerian bank which she uses.
In an apparent reaction to the allegations, the Obasanjo Foundation had sacked Welsh for plotting to help some Lebanese businessmen to launder millions of dollars.
The former president, Obasanjo, told SaharaReporters that he and other trustees of the organisation as well as staff members of the foundation were deeply saddened and disturbed by the allegations against Welsh.
He said the foundation had forced her to resign and had launched a full-scale investigation into the allegations. He also said the matter had been reported to the London Metropolitan Police and the UK Charity Commission for a thorough probe.
“We have asked the two authorities to investigate the matter exhaustively,” Obasanjo said.
In her reaction, Welsh confirmed details of the meeting, stating that she was indeed present, but denied that any wrongdoing took place. However dhe has deleted her facebook account and shut down her website.
She also confirmed that she clearly stated her name over the course of the meeting, but refused to disclose any of the “so much secret things” she said she had done with Obasanjo.
Meanwhile reports have it that Obasanjo has left the country.
Below is an Interesting Section transcribed from the Video..
2nd Speaker: Frankly? Frankly?
Anne Welsh: Yes lets speak frankly.
2nd Speaker: We want to get our share, but how much do we give you?
1st Speaker: She has an amazing smile.
Anne Welsh: Yes I do, thanks so much.
2nd Speaker: So how do you think I should do?
Anne Welsh: It’s up to you
2nd Speaker: What do you think is fair?
Anne Welsh: it’s up to you
2nd Speaker: Lets talk percentage wise.
1st Speaker: You have a beautiful smile, so tell me how you think I should do.
Anne Welsh: It’s up to you
2nd Speaker: Okay out of the 2.9 how does 15% sound?
Anne Welsh: Gosh I don’t know
2nd Speaker: Please be honest
Anne Welsh: It’s all blurry to me, I don’t know.
1st Speaker: With the things you do and you’re very assertive you should be able to think on your feet.
Anne Welsh: I know, well I think it should be a good number. At least 30%, think about the hard work I’m going to put into this, you will be so grateful to me.
1st Speaker: Your name is Anne right?
Anne Welsh: Yes, Anne Welsh. You’ve googled me to find out more about me?
2nd Speaker: Yes, I know everything that you’ve done since you started out with the Obasanjo foundation and before.
1st Speaker: And 30% is too much
2nd Speaker: You know why?
1st Speaker: how do we go about doing it?
2nd Speaker: Yes I was thinking about how we are going to go about transferring the funds.
Other Woman: basically what you want though is for her to take control of the organization
2nd Speaker: Basically what I want from her is, I’m going to give her lets say 4.9 Million, yeah? 2 million I want to go to charity and I want the letter saying thank you to the Lebanese community. 30% of 2.9 is 900,000.00, that’s your cut to start..
Anne Welsh: but I’m telling him he would be… I’m telling him, I don’t know how he found me,
2nd Speaker: Anne Anne Anne.. Pocket change. Lets start with this now.
Anne Welsh: Where’s the money now?
2nd Speaker: it’s in Sierra Leone; it’s in a commercial bank we use now.
Anne Welsh: How will you transfer it?
2nd Speaker: Don’t worry about it, we will do the transfer, It’ll take 24 or 48 hours to show in your account, because we transfer money all the time.
Anne Welsh: yes I understand with his job he probably know.
2nd Speaker: So tell me, how are we going to come back to collect ours? Explain it to me.
Anne Welsh: Okay, so you have to send it to the account in Nigeria, GT Bank, because if it comes to this account here, I can’t transfer it to anyone, if it comes to a charity account in the UK I can’t transfer it out. I can also pay you from a UK account.
1st Speaker: I need you to work it out with him, we have 4.9 we need 2million to go to charity, he has accepted to give you 30% I think that is too much
Anne Welsh: No it won’t work any other way trust me
1st Speaker: Okay, now I need to know how we would get the other part.
Anne Welsh: That’s what I was saying, Immediately it hits my account it gets to you right away. And I need the account details you want me to transfer it to. Is it a Geneva account?
2nd Speaker: We will give you the details of the account you’ll send it back to us. Anne? This is sure guaranty yeah?
Anne Welsh: Yes
2nd Speaker: What we are trying to say is, we are going to send this money, everything to your account in Nigeria, and you are going to transfer the 2 million to the charity.
Anne Welsh: yes, and that’s why I’m in Nigeria on the 26th so that I can seat at the bank while I do the transfer back to your account, it’s a good coincidence because in Nigeria I don’t trust the bank I will rather be there. And I’m also going to find out from the bank if they do bulk transfers because I hate it in bits and pieces, London might be able to do bulk transfers.
2nd Speaker: To transfer that kind of money in London they ask too much questions.
Anne Welsh: I know, Nigeria is always better.
