Bizmen used Citi Bank, FIRS documents to defraud Kuwaiti of $4.8m

An Investigating Officer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Daniel Danladi, has told Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, how two suspected fraudsters used Citi Bank and FIRS documents to defraud a Kuwaiti businessman of the sum of 4.8 million dollars.

The suspected fraudsters, Victor Uadiale and Everest Nnaji are charged with five counts of conspiracy to obtain money by false pretences. According to counsel to EFCC, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, Uadiale, who goes by the alias, Victor Emeka and Amaka Emeka, committed the offence of conspiracy, obtaining money under false pretence alongside Nnaji and one Ismaila Lawal (at large) between 1997 and 1998 in Lagos.

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“Uadiale and Lawal between 24 February and 19 March 1997, with intent to defraud, obtained an aggregate sum of $93,250 from Tawfeeq Al-Omar, a Kuwaiti national.

“The funds were received under the false pretence that it represented the payment for 50,000 metric tonnes of Urea (phosphate fertilizer) which they claimed was procured from National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria (NAFCON).

“On 11th August 1997, in Lagos, Uadiale and Lawal fraudulently obtained $282,500 from Al-Omar under the false pretence that the money was payment for 75,000 metric tonnes of diesel procured from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

“Between 25th November 1997 and 18th May, 2006 Uadiale and Nnaji, in Lagos, obtained an aggregate sum of $3.5 million from Al -Omar under the pretence that the funds were payment for Bonny Light crude diesel.

“Also, between 17th January, 2007 and 8th February, 2011, Uadiale solely obtained the sum of $945,000 from Al-Omar by falsely claiming that the money was payment for Bonny Light crude diesel,” Oyedepo said.

According to the anti-graft commission, the offence contravened the provisions of Section 1(3) and 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 1995.

Led in the witness box by EFCC counsel, at the resumption of the trial, Danladi said the investigation revealed that the two documents used to trick the victim are forged and fake.

Oyedepo recalled various exhibits from court dockets and asked the Investigating Officer to reveal the outcome of their Investigation on those exhibits.

The exhibits he recalled include Citi Bank Statement of Account, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, documents, electronic evidence of a phone call conversation between the victim and the suspects and others.

According to Danladi, finding of the anti-graft agency confirmed that the defendants used an account with Barclays Bank to perpetuate the fraud.

“When we approached a representative of the bank in Nigeria, he insisted that he would not give third party details of the account domiciled in their bank. He said it is the suspect who can authorised access to the account.

“Since we had an agreement with the Federal Bureau of Intelligence, we then wrote letters to Nigeria Intelligence Financial Unit, Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

“The NIFU, in its reply to the EFCC, confirmed that the transaction actually occurred a long time ago,” Danladi affirmed.

Consequently, Danladi said investigators of the Commission beamed their searchlights on some of the MTM phone lines discovered in a bundle of documents given to the Commission by the lawyer to the victim, used by the defendants to perpetrate the fraud.

“We wrote to MTN to provide us with the call log of the numbers. Finding from the call log revealed that there were phone calls from the same location where one of the defendants was residing,” the witness said.

Justice Mojisola Dada then adjourned the matter to 21st September, 2021, for the continuation of the case.

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