MTN HIRES TOP U.S LAWYER TO CHALLENGE $3.9 BILLION FINE

MTN hires top U.S. lawyer to challenge $3.9b fine

Telecommunications giant  MTN has hired a former United States Attorney General Eric Holder to help fight the $3.9 billion fine imposed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for failing to disconnect unregistered users, the Financial Times reported yesterday.

Citing people familiar with the situation, the newspaper said Holder, the immediate past U.S. top law officer, pleaded with Nigerian officials last month on behalf of the telecoms company.

Africa’s largest mobile phone company was handed a $5.2billion penalty last October, prompting weeks of lobbying that led to a 25 per cent reduction to $3.9 billion.

MTN, however, was still not prepared to pay the fine and launched a court challenge in December, saying the Nigerian telecoms regulator had no legal grounds to order the penalty.

A Federal High Court judge sitting in Lagos last month gave MTN until March 18 to try to reach a settlement over the fine, which equates to more than twice MTN’s annual average capital spending over the past five years.

MTN spokesperson Chris Maroleng was not immediately available to comment.

Holder, who led the US Justice Department from 2009 to2015, was one of President Barack Obama’s longest-serving cabinet members. He returned to the law firm Covington & Burling, where he was previously a partner from 2001 to 2009.

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