Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The High Court of Justice in London has issued a worldwide freezing order against Abdulrahman Musa Bashar, one of Nigeria’s most prominent oil traders, and his Dubai-based company, Ultimate Oil and Gas FZCO. The court took this drastic step after ruling that Bashar had taken deliberate steps to conceal and dispose of his fortune to avoid a $40 million debt owed to a UAE-based fuel supplier, Petrichor Energy FZCO. The order, granted on March 30, 2026, freezes Bashar’s assets across the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and France, which he had previously disclosed to be worth close to $170 million. The judgment marks a severe escalation in a long-running legal battle that has spanned multiple jurisdictions and exposed a pattern of what the court described as ongoing evasion, incomplete disclosure, and a refusal to pay rather than an inability to do so.
The origins of the dispute date back to 2022 and 2023, when Petrichor Energy FZCO entered into spot and term contracts with Ultimate Oil and Gas FZCO for the supply of gasoil and Jet-A1 aviation fuel. According to court documents, Ultimate received the cargoes but consistently failed to make full and timely payments, forcing Petrichor to pursue recovery through simultaneous arbitration and court proceedings. In January 2024, Bashar signed a personal payment agreement to resolve the outstanding debt, backing it with a personal guarantee that made him individually liable for Ultimate’s obligations. He also issued nine signed but undated cheques as additional security. However, when Petrichor later presented the cheques, Bashar’s bank rejected every single one, citing irregular signatures. By February 2025, the English court had entered judgment against both Bashar and Ultimate, leaving approximately $40 million still unpaid. The court later noted that a total of AED 120 million (USD 32.7 million) was owed by Bashar personally and a further AED 27.5 million (USD 7.5 million) by his company.
What truly alarmed the court was not just the debt itself, but the conduct that followed the judgment. The judge found that Bashar had sold multiple UAE properties worth roughly $3.8 million after the ruling came down, without directing any of the proceeds toward the creditor. Even more damaging was the testimony about a phone call on March 15, 2026. According to evidence accepted by the court, Bashar told Petrichor’s managing director that if the creditor refused another revised repayment proposal, he would "dispose of" his assets to make enforcement harder. The court treated that statement as direct evidence of a risk that assets would be dissipated. The London judge concluded that this was a case of someone who "will not pay, rather than cannot pay."
The freezing order is one of the most powerful remedies available under English law. It bars Bashar and Ultimate from disposing of or dealing with any assets anywhere in the globe up to the value of the outstanding debt. Violation of the order can result in contempt of court proceedings, which carry the possibility of imprisonment. The court’s concerns were further heightened by questions over what Bashar had actually disclosed about his holdings. Evidence before the court indicated that Nigerian assets, including petrol stations and a residential property reportedly worth more than $21 million, had not been included in earlier asset declarations. The omission deepened the judge’s suspicions that Bashar was deliberately concealing the full scope of his wealth.
Bashar is no stranger to legal troubles in England. In February 2020, Justice Butcher of the England and Wales High Court sentenced him to ten months in prison for contempt of court in a separate dispute involving Sahara Energy Resources. In that case, his company, Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas, failed to supply more than 6,400 metric tonnes of gas oil as ordered by the court, and he was found to have deliberately disobeyed court instructions. A Dubai court also convicted Bashar in absentia in January 2025 on check‑fraud charges stemming from another energy dispute, sentencing him to one year in prison, though that sentence was later revoked at the parties’ request. The recurring nature of these legal battles across multiple countries paints a consistent picture of a businessman willing to use every procedural tool and jurisdictional boundary to frustrate his creditors.
With the asset freeze now in place, Petrichor has intensified its enforcement campaign across three continents. The company has launched parallel actions in the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts and in Nigerian courts, determined to lock down any potential movement of funds or property. On April 17, the English court issued an additional injunction ordering two of Bashar’s Nigerian affiliates, Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas and Zamson Global Resources, to grant Petrichor access to a Koko storage depot in Delta State to recover unpaid gasoil cargoes stored at the site. The court warned that failure to comply could expose Bashar to fresh contempt proceedings and possible criminal liability.
The legal crisis facing Bashar is a cautionary tale for international commodity traders. His attempts to restructure his way out of a clear debt obligation, combined with undisclosed property sales and an apparent threat to hide his wealth, backfired spectacularly in front of an English judge who has now locked down his global holdings. For Petrichor, the worldwide freezing order is a major tactical victory, but the real battle remains the eventual recovery of the $40 million. The assets are frozen, but whether they can be seized, liquidated, and turned into cash for the creditor depends on the next stages of litigation in the Dubai courts, the Nigerian courts, and any further appeals that Bashar may file.
As of this report, Bashar has not publicly commented on the asset freeze, and attempts to reach his legal team for a response were unsuccessful. The High Court’s order remains in full force, and Bashar’s disclosed global holdings, valued at close to $170 million, are now effectively under the control of the court, awaiting final resolution of the debt that he promised to pay, guaranteed personally, and then apparently tried to escape.
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