Hedge fund blocks Nigeria’s access to vital document on P&ID’s arbitration award

Hedge fund firm, VR Capital Group has secured the nod of a United States’ district court to block Nigeria’s access to the internal documents required by the West African country to overturn the $10billion arbitration award to the British Virgin Islands firm, Process and Industrial Development (P&ID).

Bloomberg reports on Tuesday that District Judge Paul Engelmayer granted the Hedge Fund’s prayer in New York, overruling a verdict from May and reversing subpoenas issued by Nigeria.

The Nigerian government had demanded the proof to back a corruption investigation into P&ID, a firm in which VR Capital took over a 25 percent holding in 2018.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has launched probes into a gas-supply deal consummated by an ex-minister that attracted a huge penalty against the country in 2017.

Read also: P&ID: UK court orders release of $200m guarantee to Nigeria

The Nigerian government said the firm devised sham arrangements that were intended to fail and had accused P&ID of bribing officials.

Nigeria is also in English courts, striving to reverse both the 2017 arbitration award and a verdict by a United Kingdom judge last year that upheld it last year, claiming P&ID’s alleged graft came into the open only lately.

P&ID has denied the allegation, saying Nigeria cooked up the accusations in a bid to shirk its obligations.

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