Ibori’s UK lawyer questioned over alleged police bribery

One of the counsels to Chief James Ibori, the jailed former governor of Delta State, has been arrested in London for allegedly attempting to pervert the course of justice in the money-laundering case that got the politician sent to prison.

Ian Timlin, a former litigation partner at City Law Firm Speechly Bircham, was held by Met anti-corruption detectives investigating the alleged bribery of police officers. The senior lawyer was arrested at his home in Kent on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt a police officer, perverting the course of justice and money-laundering offences concerning Ibori.

The former governor was jailed last year for embezzlement after admitting stealing almost £50m, although the true amount may have been many times greater.

The Independent of London reported that during a long-running Scotland Yard investigation into his business affairs, Mr Ibori hired the law firm, Speechly Bircham, which specialises in tax advice for non-domiciled people living in the UK. Mr Timlin, who until 2010 was a partner at Speechly Bircham, then hired RISC Management, a controversial private detective agency embroiled in the scandal that erupted after the murder of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

Leaked documents, according to the newspaper, suggest RISC, run by former Met Police officers, gained inside information into the ongoing investigation of Ibori and that the agency paid serving detectives £20,000 for intelligence that helped the convict’s defence lawyers. One £5,000 payment was allegedly made to a source for information relating to “forthcoming interviewing strategy to be deployed by police”.

Mr Timlin was arrested in April and it is understood police have retrieved internal documents from the law firm. Keith Hunter, the boss of RISC Management, has also been arrested as part of the investigation, which was triggered in May 2012 when newspapers revealed the Met had done nothing since a whistleblower passed police leaked documents revealing the alleged payments to officers many months before.

Like all current investigations into damaging allegations of police corruption, the long-running inquiry has inched its way tortuously forward, which prevents the media from reporting the full details. Both Mr Hunter and Mr Timlin deny the allegations and are on bail.

Mr Timlin qualified as a solicitor in 1991 and was a partner for 15 years in a number of London law firms before he left Speechly Bircham in 2010. He is now legal director of the Long Port Group, a property development company in the tax haven of Guernsey, and has been involved in the construction of a sports resort in Brazil.

Sourcee