Jonathan Lennon KC secures acquittals in 6 month high profile oil corruption trial | R v Olatimbo Ayinde, Southwark Crown Court
Jonathan Lennon KC led Peter Ratliff in a 6 month high profile bribery case leading to the acquittal of their client on both charges on 17th June 2026.
Ms Ayinde, a British/ Nigerian oil tycoon, faced charges of bribing the former Nigerian Minister for Petroleum Products and ex head of OPEC, Diezani Alison-Madueke under s1 of the Bribery Act 2010 and, separately, bribing a foreign public official under s6 of the Act with a payment of $5M. The section 6 charge related to Ms Alison-Madueke’s Ministerial successor, Emmanuel Kachikwu, who did not face trial.
Ms Ayinde’s case was legally and factually complex. Her defence included that she acted as a whistle-blower. Defence efforts through Ms Ayinde’s solicitors led to the Nigerian authorities confirming that she had indeed acted as a whistle-blower in relation to the $5M bribe allegation. The prosecution suggested this information from the Nigerian authorities was false and that Ayinde only became an informant after she had paid a bribe. That allegation was rejected by the jury.
The defence case included allegations that the National Crime Agency had not followed all reasonable lines of enquiry, which then had to be undertaken by the defence.
The Financial Times reported that; “one person who spent years investigating the allegations of corruption described the acquittals as a ‘massive blow to a flagship case’ that had taken more than a decade of investigative resources”.
Rahman Ravelli Solicitors represented Ms Ayinde throughout in a team led by Aziz Rahman. Ms Ayinde had been arrested by the National Crime Agency in 2017.
All three Defendants were acquitted on all counts
Media coverage includes:
Ex-Nigeria oil minister cleared in UK bribery trial - BBC News
Nigeria's ex-oil minister Alison-Madueke cleared of all charges in UK corruption trial
