A former Nigerian pension fund official convicted of money laundering purchased at least four foreign properties with cash while he was supposed to be safeguarding the retirement funds of millions of Nigerians, according to an investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
Abdulrasheed Maina, 60, bought three properties in Kentucky and a luxury Dubai apartment between 2010 and 2013 while serving as chairman of Nigeria’s Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, OCCRP reports. All three US properties were purchased “cash in hand,” according to property records obtained by OCCRP, Premium Times, and the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa.
Maina was convicted of money laundering in 2021 and sentenced to eight years in prison, though he was released early in February 2025. Nigerian authorities seized at least 20 properties in the country following his conviction, but the newly discovered foreign real estate appears to have escaped seizure, according to OCCRP.
The foreign property purchases align with the period when prosecutors allege Maina was receiving stolen pension funds. According to the indictment in his ongoing separate case, Maina allegedly received the equivalent of approximately $1.7 million through fraudulent biometric enrollment contracts in July 2010 — one month before purchasing his first Kentucky property for $215,000.
OCCRP reports that in August 2011, Maina’s US company, VIU Investment LLC, bought two additional Kentucky homes totaling $415,000. He later transferred these properties to the Abdulrasheed Maina Children’s Trust. In June 2013, three months after being removed from his pension reform position, Maina purchased a two-bedroom hotel apartment in Dubai for nearly $670,000, which is now owned by his daughter.
The Kentucky home is currently held by Maina’s ex-wife, Laila Abdulrasheed Maina, who received it as part of a 2022 divorce settlement, according to OCCRP. When she filed for divorce in 2021, she told a US family court she was unemployed.
During his money laundering trial, the presiding judge noted that Maina’s civil servant salary was slightly above 300,000 naira and “could not have amounted to 2 billion naira even if he was saving all his salaries for 35 years,” OCCRP reports.
Maina was tasked with modernising Nigeria’s pension system and eliminating fraud through biometric verification. Instead, prosecutors allege he awarded sham contracts for biometric equipment and used forged driver’s licenses to open bank accounts he controlled, according to OCCRP.
Maina’s case has been marked by dramatic turns. He fled Nigeria to Dubai in 2013, returned in 2017, and was controversially reinstated and promoted despite being a fugitive. He fled again in 2020 while on trial, jumping bail before being tracked down in neighbouring Niger and extradited back to Nigeria, OCCRP reports.
His son, Faisal, was also convicted of money laundering in 2021 for his role in diverting allegedly stolen pension funds. During their 2019 arrest at an Abuja hotel, Faisal brandished a pistol and crashed a bulletproof Range Rover into the hotel gate trying to escape, according to OCCRP. Faisal fled on bail and now resides in the United States.
When contacted by OCCRP, Maina declined to comment through his media assistant. Economic and Financial Crimes Commission spokesperson Dele Oyewale told OCCRP the agency would likely investigate foreign assets “if we have the information in that regard.”
Maina faces a separate ongoing charge of receiving stolen property, with prosecutors alleging he dishonestly received 700 million naira from the pension fund. He continues to proclaim his innocence.
Last week, a local Nigerian Bar Association branch appointed Maina as patron and presented him with a “Rule of Law and Courage Award,” prompting the national Bar Association to condemn the appointment and announce disciplinary proceedings against the lawyer who presented the award, OCCRP reports.
