A United Kingdom Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by former Delta State Governor, James Ibori, seeking to reduce a £101.5 million asset confiscation order imposed on him over fraud and money laundering offences.
Gatekeepers News reports that the court rejected Ibori’s appeal on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, upholding the confiscation order issued by Southwark Crown Court in July 2023.
Ibori had sought to reduce the amount by approximately £4.3 million, arguing that the inflation adjustment applied to funds in frozen bank accounts was disproportionate because he could not access or invest the money while the accounts were under restraint.
However, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal ruled that the adjustment was justified under the applicable confiscation laws, noting that the order was intended to reflect the present-day value of the criminal proceeds.
The judges also rejected his argument that he should not be required to pay the additional amount arising from inflation when he had no control over the restrained funds.
The court held that the prolonged delay in the confiscation proceedings resulted from Ibori’s continued resistance to the process.
The £101.5 million order, equivalent to approximately $136 million, represents the criminal benefit established by the court.
The 2023 ruling directed Ibori to pay the amount or face an eight-year default prison sentence.
Following Tuesday’s judgment, the confiscation process can proceed unless the former governor successfully challenges the decision at the UK Supreme Court.
Speaking to Reuters after the ruling, Ibori said he was consulting his lawyers to determine his next course of action.
Ibori governed Delta State between 1999 and 2007 before pleading guilty to 10 counts of fraud and money laundering in the UK in 2012.
He was sentenced to 13 years in prison but was released in December 2016 after serving about half of his sentence, taking into account time spent in detention.
The conviction followed investigations into the diversion and laundering of public funds through bank accounts, properties and companies in several countries.
In 2021, the British government returned £4.2 million recovered from assets linked to Ibori’s former wife and sister to Nigeria under an agreement between both countries.
