Former Managing Director of FinBank Plc (now First City Monument Bank), Okey Nwosu and three other directors — Dayo Famoroti, Danjuma Ocholi and Agnes Ebubedike — being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) used names of spurious customers of the bank to purchase shares worth N18bn from Springboard Limited, a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has said.
On Tuesday 27th November 2012, Sabo Yaro, an operative of the EFCC who is a prosecution witness in the ongoing trial told the court, presided over by Justice Lateefa Okunnu, that the Federal Government set up a task force in 2009 comprising the EFCC, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), State Security Service (SSS), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the Police to look into the management of some banks.
It was then discovered that the accused persons used their positions to debit the account of FinBank to the tune of N18bn and credited it to Springboard Limited, for the purchase of shares for bank customers.
Led in evidence by EFCC counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, Yaro said it was discovered in the course of investigations that the customers, for whom the shares were purportedly purchased, were not customers of the bank, and that the addresses they gave as offices did not exist. He said they also got confirmation from the bank, through a letter, that the companies for which the shares were bought were not real customers of the bank.
Jacobs tendered a 225-page report of the CBN and NDIC to the court, containing the findings the team that investigated the bank. The report was admitted as exhibit by the court. Justice Okunnu adjourned the matter till Wednesday, 28th November for continuation of hearing.
