A British Virgin Islands (BVI) commercial court has ruled in favour of Access Bank Plc as the Nigerian financial institution seeks to recover a $220 million debt from Bryant Orjiako, former chairman and co-founder of Seplat Energy Plc, and his wife, Igra Orjiako.
Other defendants named in the case include Abbeycourt Energy Services (BVI) Limited, Plumage Management Limited, Pursley Resources Limited, Neville Investment Management Limited, Sinclair Commercial Limited, Shebah Petroleum Development Company Limited (BVI), Salvic Energy Limited, and Salvic Petroleum Resources Limited.
According to court documents obtained by TheCable, the judgment, delivered on October 1, 2025, by Justice Abbas Mithani, relates to a decade-long loan dispute originating from a $200 million syndicated facility granted to Shebah Exploration & Petroleum Company Limited (SEPCOL), a company controlled by Orjiako.
The facility — jointly provided by Afreximbank, Diamond Bank Plc, and Skye Bank Plc (now defunct) — was personally guaranteed by Orjiako.
A lengthy legal dispute
Documents reveal that SEPCOL defaulted on the loan in March 2013, prompting the lenders to call in the debt. By February 2014, they demanded repayment under Orjiako’s personal and corporate guarantees through Allenne Ltd, a BVI company.
Subsequently, the lenders filed legal action in England against SEPCOL, Orjiako, and Allenne Ltd to enforce repayment. Although the matter was initially settled, Orjiako reportedly breached the agreement, leading to a summary judgment against him in 2016.
Access Bank, as Diamond Bank’s successor, later acquired the claims of two of the original lenders and sought to enforce the English judgment in the BVI. In April 2024, the BVI court — with Orjiako’s consent — recognised and enforced the English ruling.
Following that, Access Bank initiated additional proceedings to prevent the defendants from disposing of or interfering with their assets until the case’s final determination.
The bank argued that several BVI-registered shell companies held significant share tranches in Seplat Energy Plc, which it claimed were still beneficially owned and controlled by Orjiako, despite his claim of having transferred them to his wife in 2014.
‘Fraudulent transfers to evade creditors’
The summary judgment hearing was held in July 2025, and the ruling was delivered in October 2025.
In his judgment, Justice Mithani ruled that Orjiako “retained beneficial ownership and control” of the companies, despite the alleged transfers to his wife. The court found that Orjiako continued to act as the sole director of the firms, managing the assets as his own, including using them as collateral for personal loans.
The judge described the share transfers as “deliberate, systematic, and fraudulent,” accusing Orjiako of attempting to “bury his case in a morass of irrelevant information” to delay enforcement.
“The intention on his part, in my judgment, was designed to delay and obfuscate matters in the hope that by doing so, he would delay the determination of the Claim and, as a consequence, steal a march on the Claimant and Dr Orjiako’s other creditors,” Mithani stated.
He ruled that the transfers were made with intent to defraud creditors, in violation of Section 81 of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act (CLPA) of 1961.
Mithani dismissed Orjiako’s claim that the transfers were for “estate planning,” calling it “not just fanciful but false.” He also rejected the claim that the transfers were made out of “natural love and affection,” stating that such sentiment “does not constitute valuable or good consideration” under the law.
The judge added, “It has been held that a fraudulent intent may readily be established if the debtor cannot pay his debts without the asset transferred by him being available for the payment of his debts.”
In conclusion, the court held that Orjiako is indebted to Access Bank for $220,298,038 (plus interest) under a consent order issued on April 16, 2024, and declared him the sole beneficial owner of the shareholding entities and the Salvic companies — Salvic Energy and Salvic Petroleum (BVI).
In August 2023, a Federal High Court in Lagos granted an ex-parte order freezing Orjiako’s bank accounts in connection with the same debt. The court also barred him, his agents, and associates from tampering with any of his funds in Nigerian banks or financial institutions pending final determination of the case.