A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja and presided over by Justice Lateefa Okunnu, was on Tuesday, 27 November, 2012 told that a former managing director of FinBank Plc ( Now First City Monument Bank), Okey Nwosu and three other directors being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, used names of spurious customers of the bank to purchase shares worth N18billion from Springboard Limited. The three directors are: Dayo Famoroti, Danjuma Ocholi and Agnes Ebubedike.
Sabo Yaro, an operative of the EFCC, who is a prosecution witness in the on-going trial told the court that the Federal government in 2009 set up a task force comprising the EFCC, Central Bank of Nigeria, State Security Service, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation and the police to look into the management of some bank and discovered that the accused persons used their positions to debit account of FinBank to the tune of N18 billion and credited same to Springboard Limited to purchase 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 which the shares were purportedly purchased on their behalf 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 are not real customers of the bank.
Jacobs tendered a 225 page report of the CBN and NDIC to the court which was the findings the team that investigated the bank. The report was admitted as exhibit by the court. Justice Okunnu adjourned the matter till Wednesday, 28 November for continuation of hearing.
