In 2010, while Nigerian pensioners queued endlessly for unpaid benefits, Abdulrasheed Maina was quietly shopping for homes in the United States. In August that same year, the man who was then entrusted by the Nigerian government to clean up a corruption-ridden pension system walked into a Kentucky real estate office and bought a $215,000 house.

But that purchase was only the start. Between 2010 and 2013, while serving as chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Mr Maina purchased two more houses in Kentucky and one in the United Arab Emirates, soon after he was removed from office.

The Nigerian government accused him of siphoning millions of dollars from the pension fund he was meant to safeguard during the same period.

A cross-border investigation by PREMIUM TIMES, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), and the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) has now revealed for the first time where and when Mr Maina amassed these properties worth over $1.3 million.

The investigation also uncovered a pattern of name changes, corporate manoeuvres, and legal claims that raise questions about what his ex-wife, Laila, knew about the source of her former husband’s wealth.

The Pension Reformer Who Bought Cash Homes

Mr Maina was appointed by the Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2010 to sanitise a corrupt pension system. The assignment included enrolling pensioners through biometric verification to eliminate ghost workers.

US Property records reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES and its partners show that he paid “cash in hand” for the home in Kentucky in August 2010, meaning no mortgage or loan was involved.

According to his indictment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Maina stole $1.8 million from public funds through fraudulent biometrics contracts in the month before this purchase.

One year later, in 2011, Mr Maina deployed another strategy. Using VIU Investment LLC, an American company he controlled, he bought two additional homes in Frankfort for a combined $415,000. Again, the deeds specified payment with “cash in hand.”

In June 2013, as allegations of corruption began to surface publicly in Nigeria, Mr Maina expanded his portfolio to Dubai. He purchased a two-bedroom hotel apartment in Upper Crest for nearly $700,000. This property is currently registered in the name of his daughter, Farida Abdulrasheed Maina.

Court documents indicate that Mr Maina and his personal secretary allegedly stole over $1 million from Nigeria’s pension fund between 2010 and 2013. This timing coincides precisely with his acquisitions of American property.

Nigerian authorities accused Mr Maina of stealing pensioners’ funds equivalent to the purchase price of the three homes shortly before acquiring the properties.

Our investigation shows that his ex-wife, Laila, quietly took ownership of one of these American properties in a divorce settlement.

Laila Abdulrasheed Maina, 51, divorced her husband in a Kentucky court in 2022, just months after he was convicted of money laundering. The divorce settlement awarded her the $215,000 home in Frankfort, Kentucky—a property Mr Maina had purchased with cash in 2010, during the same period he allegedly looted the pension fund he was appointed to reform.

The EFCC never attempted to seize the US properties, and no details have been made public until now.

When contacted, EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale would not comment on the content of the investigation except to say that the agency would likely investigate assets Mr Maina held in the US that might have been obtained with illicit proceeds.

“If we have the information in that regard, we would want to pursue it,” Mr Oyewale said.

Mr Maina’s son, Faisal Maina, was also found guilty of money laundering in a separate trial in 2021 for his role in diverting allegedly stolen funds. Faisal was sentenced in absentia after fleeing on bail. The EFCC said he now resides in the US.

Mr Maina did not respond to requests for comment. His media assistant told our partners, the OCCRP, that “he is not interested” in responding to our enquiries.

The Property Shuffle

As scrutiny intensified in Nigeria, Mr Maina moved to protect his American assets. In January 2013, he transferred ownership of the two VIU Investment LLC properties, first to himself personally, then immediately to the “Abdulrasheed Maina Children’s Trust.”

The former pension boss fled Nigeria for Dubai in March 2013.

When he returned to Nigeria in 2017, a PREMIUM TIMES investigation sparked public outrage by uncovering his secret reinstatement and promotion while he was a fugitive.

The EFCC subsequently declared him wanted. He was eventually arrested and indicted for money laundering in 2019.

During the 2019 raid to arrest Mr Maina and his son, Faisal drew a pistol and rammed a bulletproof Range Rover through a hotel gate in an unsuccessful escape attempt.

After fleeing trial a second time, Mr Maina was rearrested in the Republic of Niger following an Interpol red notice and extradited to Nigeria.

In November 2021, he was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for money laundering offences involving N2 billion in pension funds.

In the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/256/2019, the EFCC alleged that Mr Maina used fictitious names to open and operate various bank accounts. He also recruited his relatives, who were bank officials, to operate fake bank accounts through which illicit funds were channelled.