Enrico Monfrini has so far tracked down $1.3bn looted from Nigeria – and is looking for more

I specialise in tracing money that has been embezzled or received through corrupt deals by heads of state, their entourages and ministers or other publicly exposed persons. I’ve heard that some people call me “the dictator hunter”.

I began this work in 1999, when the Nigerian government asked me to pursue the wealth taken from the country by its former dictator, General Sani Abacha, who had died the previous year. I am a lawyer based in Geneva but I have been close to Africans all my life; my father was a diplomat in Gabon, and then in Ivory Coast. I wanted to be a farmer and grow crops, but my father said, “No way.” So I became a lawyer, and eventually it happened that I represented several people who opposed Abacha during his reign. When they took power and wanted someone they could trust to pursue the money, they asked me.