2010 US Senate report recycled as fresh corruption probe into Nigeria’s former VP

“BREAKING: The United State Government has released report of corruption against Baba @atiku as it looks to keep all forms of foreign corrupt individuals out of the the US!! (sic)” reads part of the caption of an X post published on July 25, 2026. 

The post adds that Nigerians, who are heading into another election cycle, will “reject” Abubakar, who is the presidential candidate for the African Democratic Congress (ADC (archived here).

Image

Screenshot showing the misleading X post, taken on July 4, 2026

Shared more than 300 times, the post includes four screenshots purportedly showing pages from the findings of a newly released corruption investigation in the US. Among the individuals named in the report is Abubakar, who served as Nigeria's vice president between 1999 and 2007.

However, details visible in the first screenshot indicate that the document was released in conjunction with a "February 4, 2010 hearing" of the "Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations".

Despite this, some commenters appeared to believe it is a recent report.

"Says a lot about the leaders Nigeria produce," one user wrote.

"It's 100% genuine!" another commented.

The same claim has circulated elsewhere on X. 

In recent months, Abubakar hired US-based lobbying firm Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C to handle his public relations and target Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s campaign (archived here).

The firm has reignited discussion around decades-old US records concerning Tinubu, including Department of Justice documents relating to an alleged heroin trafficking investigation spanning the late 1980s and early 1990s (archived here).

The renewed attention has prompted counterclaims from Tinubu supporters, including the posts alleging Abubakar is the subject of a current US Senate investigation.

However, the claim is misleading. 

16-year-old report

Using keywords from the first screenshot in the X post, AFP Fact Check found a 328-page PDF published by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on July 12, 2010, with a front page containing identical information (archived here).

The report examined how US professionals helped foreigners with political links move millions of dollars into the country.

It highlighted four major anti-money laundering failures across US financial institutions and universities, implicating Equatorial Guinea’s now vice president and president’s son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue (known as Teodorin), alongside Abubakar, the family of former Gabonese president Omar Bongo, and Angolan government officials.

The subcommittee found that more than $40 million in suspicious foreign funds were transferred into US bank accounts between 2000 and 2008 by Abubakar’s wife, Jennifer Douglas, including $14 million sent to American University via offshore shell entities.

The X post also includes pages 173-174 of the report, which specifically focus on Abubakar. These pages correspond with the original document.

Image

Graphics showing comparison between the false post (left) and the original report (right), taken on July 4, 2026

The report did not culminate in any criminal charges against Abubakar either at the time or subsequently.  

After the reports original publication, several media houses and think tanks covered it, including a wire dispatch by the Associated Press (AP), which was widely republished here and here (archive here, here and here).

Further searches by AFP Fact Check also found that the 2010 report was produced under the chairmanship of Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who led the subcommittee from 2007 till 2015. 

Levin died on July 29, 2021 (archived here).

Several other senators have chaired the subcommittee since then. The current chairman is Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), who who took over in January 2025 following the Republican majority in the 119th Congress (archived here).