Justice Kudirat Jose of a Lagos High Court in Ikeja will today continue hearing on the N855m fraud involving the deputy manager of a bank (identity withheld), Anayo Nwosu.
Nwosu is facing trial alongside an Indian national, Ashok Isran, Olajide Oshodi and Sunny Obazee, both managers of the same bank.
Also charged along with Nwosu are NULEC Industries Limited and the bank in question.
It will be recalled that a prosecution witness for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Chukwuma Orji, had informed the court about how top officials of the bank connived with the Indian national to deceive Mr. Daniel Chukwudozie, a Managing Director of Dozzy Oil and Gas Limited, to part with the sum of N855m under a spurious private share placement deal.
However, the defendants pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge of conspiracy and fraud.
Orji had told the court that one of the defendants, Anayo, carefully concealed the bankrupt status of NULEC Industries Limited to their victims, Chukwudozie and his company, convincing them to invest N285m in NULEC Industries through the phony private placement.
The witness further disclosed that even before the private placement was opened on July 25, 2008, the defendants had allegedly withdrawn a large proportion of the funds and wired the rest abroad.
He, however, pointed out that the wired sum was later returned in parts to various accounts traced to Isran in Nigeria.
The witness further told the court from the investigation that Anayo, being the account officer to NULEC in the bank, fully knew that the firm was indebted up to N130million to the bank, but hoodwinked the victim to invest N285 million due to his desperation for promotion.
According to the witness, the first action by the alleged managers on the invested fund was to settle
NULEC company’s N130 million indebtedness to the bank before transferring the remaining sum to Risa Enterprises in Switzerland, a firm purportedly owned by Isran.
“Our investigation indicated that the first defendant, Anayo Nwosu, as the account officer of NULEC Industries Limited was aware that NULEC was indebted to various banks such as UBA, GTB,
ACCESS Bank and Bank PHB, but his desperation for promotion led him to approach Gozzy Oil and Gas to invest in Nulec Industries shares.
“He was aware that the fifth defendant, Nulec Industries Limited, was indebted to the bank in question to the tune of N130 million when he approached the MD of Gozzy Oil and Gas for the share offer.
‘’For the purpose of the offer, an account was opened with the bank, named Private Placement Account, while there was another account called Operation Account through which the company conducted its daily affairs.
“Our investigation also indicated that immediately the Operating Account of Nulec Industries Limited was credited, N130million was fraudulently removed and used to offset indebtedness of the company to the bank out of the N285 million outstanding, while the remaining fund was wired to the offshore account of Risa Enterprises in Switzerland.
‘’The fact from our investigation revealed that the businessman fraudulently lost the money before the commencement of the shares offer,” the witness disclosed.
EFCC alleged that withdrawal of funds invested by the victim was done by the defendants between July 15 and 16, 2008, about nine days before July 25 date of the share placement, though fraudulently.
The commission maintained that it was able to confirm that there was no error that the fund was paid to the Operation Account rather than Private Placement Account, stating that it was a well-scripted fraud by all the defendants in the suit
Source: Vanguard
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