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...
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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