The Southwark Crown Court in London has ordered the confiscation of £101.5 million pounds ($130.34 million) from a former governor in Nigeria, James Ibori.
Judge David Tomlinson ordered the seizure of the fund on Friday.
But Ibori said he would appeal against the confiscation order, one of the largest imposed on an individual in recent British legal history, according to Reuters.
Ibori said the next steps would be to take his fight for justice to the highest courts in the UK.
Judge David Tomlinson, delivering the confiscation order at Southwark Crown Court, said Ibori should pay the sum immediately or face an eight-year jail sentence.
The confiscation process took over a decade after Ibori’s conviction because of lengthy court delays and legal wrangling in London.
Helen Taylor, Senior Legal Researcher at campaign group Spotlight on Corruption, said the long and tortuous road to reach this point showed just how tough it is to recover the proceeds of corruption in the UK.
She added that to ensure justice delayed did not mean justice denied for the Nigerian people, it was essential that the UK now made every effort to ensure the speedy return of this stolen loot to benefit the victims of Ibori’s corruption in Delta State.
