Zambia and British banks

The Zambian government says it has recovered money and assets worth nearly $60m stolen during the rule of former President Frederick Chiluba. As the BBC reports, Chiluba is on trial at the Magistrates Court in Lusaka, charged with corruption; The civil action was brought in Britain because the allegedly stolen money passed through bank accounts in London.

The BBC did not say which banks were at stake, though it said various officials were involved. According to an older story from the Times of Zambia, an injunction was obtained in June last year in London and Belgium, as well as accounts at a number of banks in London, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Belgium, and elsewhere. We recently described how American banks appear to have happily received large amounts of money from corrupt African rulers, and explained how Britain appears to be at least as bad.