+ His history and the controversial lifestyle that makes him a forbidden political associate
A
Yoruba saying goes thus: A drop of excreta on the tip of a plate of
bean soup that is wiped away and the physical eyes cannot see, does not
mean it will be wiped off the memory that excreta might have dropped
into the soup. This adage appropriately fits the current circumstances
concerning Kase Lawal, a very influential Nigerian in the United States
of America.
His influence in the USA has seen him befriending
politicians in both Democratic and Republican parties, and this has
earned him recognition, as reflected in his appointment by President
Barack Obama into the White House Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and
Negotiations.
Though he was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, as Kase
Lukman Lawal, his journey to the USA dates back to the time he spent to
obtain his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Texas Southern
University, in 1976, after which he had his MBA from Prairie View
A&M University, also in Texas, in 1978. He then founded the CAMAC
International Corporation, of which he still remains the Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He’s also the Chairman of Allied Energy
Corporation in Houston, Texas; and Chairman/Chief Executive Officer
(CEO), CAMAC HOLDINGS.
He is currently serving a seventh
term as Commissioner to the Port of Houston Authority and as
Vice-Chairman of the Houston Airport Development System Corporation. He
is also a member of the National Urban League’s Board of Directors and
the Fisk University Board of Trustees, and a significant shareholder in
Unity National Bank, the only federally insured and licensed
African-American-owned bank in Texas.
Over the years, he’s been
known to be a strong supporter of Mrs Hillary Clinton. He was said to
have, in 2000, single-handedly organised a fundraiser for the former
American First Lady which generated more than $100,000. Clinton’s
campaign lists Lawal among about 250 “Hillraisers” who pledged to
collect at least $100,000 in donations for her then, and she attended a
fund raising luncheon at Lawal’s home in Houston that generated more
than $100,000, and she spoke to about 250 guests gathered around Lawal’s
indoor swimming pool, including two former Houston mayors and Shell Oil
President, John Hofmeister.
His mention in the past in some
fraudulent activities may cost whoever he’s supporting, going by the way
and manner Donald Trump is going about his campaign, as Lawal was at a
time mentioned in a spectacular fraud-related matter in the oil industry
in Nigeria. He and others allegedly conspired to “steal” an oil block
and pump millions of barrels of oil from it. Despite protracted legal
proceedings (though he was never prosecuted and he has consistently
denied the allegations), information revealed he was at a time on the
list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) wanted
Nigerians and this much was confirmed by the then Attorney-General, Mr.
Michael Andoakaa, at a function back then.
In 2003 the Mail &
Guardian revealed how Lawal, after becoming close to former South
African president, Thabo Mbeki, benefited from “what appears to be a
fraud on the Nigerian and South African public”. It was reported that
CAMAC, a company owned by Kase Lawal, had in that deal set up a
subsidiary in South Africa, with the name “South African Oil Company”.
This he was said to have done in association with a group of individuals
connected to the ANC, South Africa’s leading and ruling political
party.
According to the report, Mbeki was said to have written to
his then-counterpart in Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, chipping in
good words about the company and supporting the company’s request for “a
long-term crude oil contract on behalf of the Republic of South
Africa”. This it was said helped the company get substantial oil
allocations at discounted “government-to-government” rates from Nigeria.
The report explained further that the oil was however diverted as it
was never taken to South Africa, with the proceed paid into an account
opened in the name of South African Oil Company at a bank in the Cayman
Islands, where a mystery co-owner shared the proceeds with Kase
Lawal-owned CAMAC.
Kase and his CAMAC were also in the news over
illegal transaction, this time in gold. In December 2010, Dikembe
Mutombo, a Congolese basketball hero formerly with the Houston Rockets,
was said to have introduced Lawal to the opportunity to buy 475kg of
gold supposedly held in Kenya, and Lawal, we gathered, involved diamond
trader Carlos St. Mary to help execute the gold deal with an agreement
that Kase, Mutombo and St. Mary would split the estimated $10-million
profit after the deal had been finalised.
It however turned out
later that the gold was actually being bought from a DRC Congo warlord
who had been banned by the UN. The deal, it was gathered, cost Kase
Lawal a sum to the tune of about $30 million which he could not recover
as the deal was stopped by the ban decreed by President Joseph Kabila on
all precious mineral exports from the eastern DRC, in an attempt to
stop the financing of arms smuggling and destabilisation in the country.
The
intensity of the current electioneering campaign in America, which has
seen the actors employing all sorts of measures to outdo one another,
has seen some, especially Hilary Clinton, receiving backlash for her
relationship with people like Kase Lawal. And it is only a matter of
time before the Texas oilman’s name comes up for mention in the whole
issue, especially if he raises any fund for the former Secretary of
State in his capacity as a Hillraiser.
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