University Of Jos Undergrad, Others Steal N2 Billion From Bank
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.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment