Sani Abacha and family-linked accounts in Switzerland, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom held funds estimated by Swiss authorities and successive Nigerian recovery teams at roughly $5 billion at peak. The principal extraction mechanisms were direct cash drawdowns from the Central Bank of Nigeria authorised in the name of 'national security' — 1,243 such drawdowns totalling about $2.4 billion were later traced by the Pius Okigbo / Christopher Kolade panels — together with inflated security contracts (notably with companies linked to Mohammed Sani Abacha, Abubakar Bagudu and Gilbert Chagoury), discounted crude lifting, and the diversion of debt-buyback proceeds.
The funds were laundered into Swiss banks (UBS, Credit Suisse, Bank Leumi le-Israel Switzerland), Jersey-domiciled trusts (Doraville Properties; Blue Holdings; Mecosta Securities), Liechtenstein anstalten, and Luxembourg holding vehicles. The Swiss Federal Office of Justice, after public prompting by the post-1999 Obasanjo administration, classified the entire Abacha asset pool as 'illicit' on 6 August 2004 — the first time a sitting bank-secrecy jurisdiction had so designated the funds of a foreign head of state.
Independent reconstructions (Transparency International, the Basel Institute on Governance, the UNODC/World Bank Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative) converge on a $4.5–$5 billion peak figure. By 2026 cumulative repatriations to Nigeria exceeded $1.2 billion; further tranches in Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the United States remained the subject of restitution agreements (see 1999 entry).