Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) have arrested two young men identified as Isaiah Friday and Azzaior
Samuel for allegedly defrauding a bank the sum of N2.05b. The suspects who
claimed to be undergraduates of the University of Jos and two bureau de change
operators, Salihu Mahmoud and Dan Ibrahim, connived to commit the criminal act.
The suspects were also accused of being members of a
syndicate that specialised in breaking into the computer data base of financial
institutions to carry out dry posting of funds...
Read full report after the cut....(MUST Read For Bankers)
The Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, said
the suspects were arrested in Lagos and Jos.
Their arrest comes on the heels of a petition which the
commission received from Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Marina, Lagos, in January
2013, alleging that a criminal attack had been launched on its data base known
as ‘Flexcube’, by yet-to-be-identified criminals who falsified the bank records
and accounts and created unjustified huge opening balances in several accounts
across the bank’s branches. They subsequently transferred funds from those
accounts to several accounts in other banks.
The petition, which was signed by one A.F Olufade, Head of
Fraud Investigation at the bank, said cash withdrawals and electronic transfers
totalling N2.05bn was involved in the scam.
It was learnt that EFCC initial investigation showed that
Friday, who was carrying out computer system maintenance services for one of
the Union Bank branches in Jos, Plateau State, on a part-time basis, paved the
way for the fraudsters to penetrate the bank’s database. Uwujaren said, Friday
was traced and arrested. His arrest led to the arrest of Azaaior Samuel.
Investigations further revealed that Samuel introduced
Friday to Mahmoud, who is the mastermind of the fraud with others now at large.
Mahmoud and other collaborators told Friday that they needed
access to the bank’s database in order to carry out some postings. They
promised to give Friday N.5m if the deal succeeded. Friday agreed. On the day
the crime was committed, he told people at the bank that Samuel was his
colleague who had accompanied him to work.
It was learnt that after the gang had succeeded in gaining
access to the bank’s premises, it carried out the postings to six different
company accounts domiciled in Union Bank’s Marina branch in Lagos.
The accounts are Gona Bureau De Change Limited, Jaxmine
Bureau De Change Limited, Dan Kawu Bureau De Change Limited, Godswill Great
Communications, ZHG Services Limited and A and B Console Limited. The postings
were carried out and the syndicate thereafter went to the bank to withdraw all
the funds. Friday was paid as promised and other syndicate members now at large
shared the remaining balance.
The EFCC spokesman added that the commission had been able
to recover $2,129,900 and another
N134,542, from the fraudsters.
Other items recovered are furniture worth N10m from Salihu
Liman’s one bedroom apartment in Yaba, Lagos; four vehicles, landed properties
in Kano and Kaduna and a four-bedroom duplex worth N45m in Lagos. Investigation
into the scam continues…
Source: Punch
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