Determination of Willful Blindness of Companies in Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prosecution under Nigerian Law
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Abstract
There has been an evolution in the application of criminal liability of companies in the two major criminal justice jurisdiction in the world. Since 1900 the United States and the United Kingdom have been charting a course for the applicability of criminal liabilities to companies through the attribution principles. The attribution principles apply the intent of natural persons driving a company or acting on its behalf to the company itself in determining culpability and standards of proof. Furthermore after analyzing the approach to corporate criminal liability in Nigeria; the research also reviews the doctrine of willful blindness as it applies to prosecution of companies in Nigeria for money laundering and terrorism financing. This review analyzed the approach of the Nigerian judicial system to the application of wilful blindness as a form of mens rea in attributing intent of natural persons to corporate criminal liability. The purpose of the research is to determine the applicability of wilful blindness as a form of mens rea in prosecution of companies in Nigeria for money laundering and terrorism financing and pinpoint the risks faced by companies operating in Nigeria.. The research relies on the doctrinal approach and focused on primary and secondary literature that had reviewed the concepts and dealt with the different approaches in Nigeria. The scope of the research was restricted to willful blindness as it applies to money laundering and terrorism financing prosecution and the second restriction is the focus of the research on the relative approach of the Nigerian judicial system as against that of the United States and the United Kingdom. The research in reviewing cases and outcomes of investigation of companies in Nigeria has discovered that the approach is neither the United Kingdom alter ego doctrine nor the United States respondeat superior in any strict sense but an amalgamation of different ingredients from the two dominant jurisdictions. Secondly the research discovered that there are is little awareness of the existence of willful blindness as a mens rea in corporate criminal liability, although it was discovered that the prosecution of several companies reviewed has shown reliance on the doctrine. The cases reviewed have shown charges filed against companies separately from its natural persons/drivers with the defendants being held to standards of intent similar to the principles of wilful blindness.