Despite his reputation as an international entrepreneur and businessman with expertise in growth, investment and strategy, Michael J. Prest hardly talks and avoids controversies. The Nigerian-born international oil tycoon is one very private man who actually detests being put in the spotlight.
No doubt, he is one of the toughest negotiators the oil industry has produced. According to close aides, Prest’s brain is always working as each of his actions and moves are well thought out and calibrated.
Yet, the founder of Petrodel Resources, an international oil and gas development and energy company, keeps miring a series of legal controversies. Not a few would easily forget the landmark case centred on the £17.5 million divorce of Prest and his former wife Yasmin, the British-born second daughter of the highly respected veterinary surgeon from Gombe, the late Dr. Inua Mohammed. The case had pitched the family division and the commercial division of the United Kingdom High Court against each other and many had presumed the more powerful corporate side would win.
While the dust had yet to settle on that case, the billionaire businessman has again enmeshed in yet another landmark case. This time around, as revealed to Society Watch, it was in the Caribbean Island of Nevis where the Nigerian-born magnate has had a home since 1996.
Prest also owns the Bank of Nevis International Limited, BONI, an international bank offering private and wealth management services. The Delta State-born tycoon is also one of the largest employers of the small Idyllic Caribbean Island. But in June 2021, the Island’s financial regulators attempted to restrict Prest’s company, Petrodel, and imposed fines on BONI. The legal action led Prest’s lawyers to argue that the regulators had the power to do so and were acting with impunity.
In a landmark court ruling, Honorable Justice Patrick Thompson Jr. handed down a judgment in favour of Prest, which has sent seismic shock in the financial services industry in the Caribbean Island of Nevis. The Jurist awarded Prest an order for certiorari, quashing the decision of the Regulator of International Banking to issue the letter dated June 23, 2021, seeking to restrict Prest, and ordered that Prest was entitled to a declaration, that the Regulator of International Banking had no authority to restrict the activities of Prest’s company, Petrodel. Thus Prest was successful in his claim for judicial review.
