By Kelechi Mgboji
Assistant Business Editor
Scandal is a rolling story in Fidelity Bank.
A petition a former employee wrote to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alleging fraud by the bank in 2011, which the EFCC hushed up, has even just come to light.
But the latest allegation that Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Nnamdi Okonkwo, helped former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, to launder $115 million cash may have sealed and delivered the tier 2 bank as a “bank of scandals”.
Scandal one
On May 12, 2012, the EFCC arraigned the bank’s Branch Manager in Gwagwalada, Abuja, Augustine Odinawo, along with others at an Abuja High Court.
The allegations against them included fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, forgery of public sector accounts, and obtaining by false pretense N25.4 million.
The suspects included:
• Napoleon Obaje Adofu (branch manager of Oceanic Bank now Ecobank).
• Patrick Onyekachi (employee of Equitorial Trust Bank now Sterling Bank).
• Reuben Omotayo (employee of Federal Capital Development Administration, FCDA).
• Abdulmalik Isa Teina (employee of Abuja Geographic Information Systems, AGIS).
They allegedly defrauded one Juliet Uzor.
It was alleged that a N25.46 million bank draft payable to AGIS was handed to the suspects.
Rather than pay it into the draft owner’s account, they allegedly conspired among themselves to open a fake corporate account of AGIS and lodged the draft in it.
After the draft cleared, the accused allegedly transferred the money electronically to two fake company (Yombor Ventures and Aicoor Tao Nigeria) accounts from which they made a massive withdrawal which they shared.
Scandal two
There was another scandal in the Abuja axis.
Exclusive Stores, a company based in Abuja, had an account with Fidelity Bank in Wuse, Abuja.
A former manager assigned to Exclusive Stores to collect sales revenue on behalf of the bank for deposit in the client’s account allegedly pocketed over N100 million.
Exclusive Stores discovered the missing amount through account reconciliation.
The firm took the suspect to the Abuja High Court and requested that the account be closed but the Fidelity Bank management team from Lagos intervened and agreed to refund the stolen money and settle the case amicably.
Scandal three
Fidelity Bank got into another mess over Sure-P Programme. This time, fund allocated to the programme allegedly developed wings and disappeared from the vault of the bank.
The fund was meant for infrastructure and human capital development of states under the rested SURE-P programme of former President Goodluck Jonathan, but the undisclosed sum allegedly ended up in private accounts belonging to the sons and cronies of a former governor.
Some of the bank’s top staff allegedly aided the transfer of billions of naira into accounts operated by the sons and associates of the former governor who appointed Fidelity Bank to handle the SURE-P account.
Several wire transfers were allegedly made from an Abuja branch of Fidelity Bank that ran into billions that were traced to the governor’s sons and their friends.
State Security Service (SSS) personnel stormed the bank in Abuja and apprehended eight senior staff who were detained at SSS headquarters for several days despite pressure from top politicians.
It took the intervention of former Fidelity Bank Managing Director, Reginald Ihejiahi, before a bank official made confessional statements about how he supervised the distribution of the money.
Scandal four
The latest allegation of the involvement of the bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Nnamdi Okonkwo, in helping former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, to launder $115 million cash may have cemented the reputation of the bank.
Okonkwo was taken into EFCC custody for allegedly presiding over the receipt of such huge cash and helping to distribute it to beneficiaries two days to the general elections in 2015.
He allegedly violated the law by not reporting the receipt and warehousing of the cash to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).
Others arrested alongside Okonkwo included the bank’s Head of Operations, Martins Izuogbe.
Alison-Madueke allegedly deposited the $115 million in the bank as preparation began for the presidential election.
She allegedly invited Okonkwo to Abuja, briefed him on the deal, and he
allegedly accepted to receive the money into the bank’s coffers despite the fact that Alison-Madueke did not have an account with Fidelity Bank.
Discovery by EFCC
The EFCC claimed to have made the discovery when its operatives probing how officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Rivers, Delta, and Akwa Ibom States allegedly received N675.1 million a day or two before the ballot.
The EFCC alleged that
• The money was traced to Fidelity Bank.
• Okonkwo confessed that Alison-Madueke invited him to a meeting as preparation for the election began.
• She told him that some companies would deposit some funds in the bank.
• She told him she would give him further instructions on how the funds would be disbursed.
The EFCC also alleged that after the meeting, the following four companies made cash deposits into Fidelity Bank:
• Auctus Integrated ($17,884,000)
• Northern Belt Gas Company ($60 million)
• Midwestern Oil and Gas ($9.5 million)
• Leno Laitan Adesanya ($1.85 million)
Okonkwo himself allegedly received $26 million in cash.
Alison-Madueke’s son, Ugonna, allegedly became the go-between after the cash deposits were made.
Ugonna allegedly supplied the names of the beneficiaries of the funds, who allegedly included INEC officials, interest groups, and election monitors expected to compromise the electoral process.
Okonkwo allegedly confirmed to the EFCC that it was Ugonna who sent him the list of the beneficiaries.
A source in the EFCC said: “When Okonkwo found it difficult to convert the money into naira before the election as directed by [Alison-Madueke], he notified her of the development.
“She in turn told him to use the bank’s fund and then convert the dollar into naira after the election. This was promptly done and the fund was distributed as directed.”
The total sum in naira then was about N23.3 billion. Not less than N681 million was allegedly given to INEC officials out of the amount.
Among the alleged beneficiaries in the EFCC report were:
• Resident Electoral Commissioner for Cross River State, Gesil Khan (N185, 842,000).
• Electoral Officer in Isoko-South Council of Delta State, Fidelia Omoile (N112,480,000).
• Administrative Secretary in Delta State, Uluochi Brown (N111,500,000).
• Former Deputy Director in Cross River State, Edem Effanga (N241,127,000).
• Head of Voter Education in Akwa Ibom State, Immaculata Asuquo (N214,127,000).
Petition by former employee
In 2011, a former official of Fidelity Bank, Francis Ogboko, blew the whistle on the rot in the bank before its merger with others that make up the new Fidelity Bank.
He claimed in a petition to the EFCC dated June 13, 2011 that the bank did not disclose its true net opposition before it merged with two other banks that formed the new Fidelity Bank.
He alleged that top officials deceived the CBN and Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) by not disclosing a N6.316 billion loan to two companies – Oil Recovery and Environmental Services (ORES) and ERES N.V.
According to the petition, ORES operated account number 1210527113 with a debit balance of N3.289 billion, ERES operated account number 1210588228 with a debit balance of N3.026 billion as of October 31, 2005.
Ogboko claimed that his appointment was terminated after he discovered the huge fraud perpetrated by top officials of Fidelity Bank, including Ihejiahi; Willie Obiano (now governor of Anambra State); Ikemefuna Mbagwu; Sam Obijiaku; and Boye Ogunbolade.
He alleged that two loan accounts totalling N6.316 billion in the books of old Fidelity Bank as of October 31, 2005 were omitted in the Overdraft Report prior to the merger of the three banks that formed the new Fidelity Bank.
Ogboko alleged the bank covered up its deceit of regulators and the public by overstating shareholders’ funds using the two rogue accounts.
“This implies that the shareholders fund of old Fidelity was overstated by N6.316b. This is highly deceptive.
“Both the CBN and NDIC and other regulatory bodies, including the general public, were deceived by the act,” he wrote in the petition to the EFCC, a copy of which was obtained by TheNiche.
Ogboko, a chartered accountant, alleged that he noticed the discrepancy and notified his former immediate boss, Boye Ogunbolade, that the action was not in line with financial guidelines.
He wondered: Who were the real owners of Oil Recovery and Environmental Services and ERES N.V being shielded by senior bank officials and subordinates?
He alleged that the two loan accounts were omitted in the Overdraft Report of the bank prior to its merger, and expressed disappointment with how his petition to the EFCC for investigation was compromised.
When TheNiche contacted Fidelity Bank spokesman, Henry Ndiulo, he refused to comment.
On hearing that the enquiry was about controversial transactions involving the bank’s officials, he hung the phone.
Forewarning
TheNiche reported on November 8, 2015 that the top shots of Fidelity Bank might end up in EFCC cell over another scandal also involving another branch manager in Abuja.
EFCC officials investigating N8 billion fraud allegedly committed by Abdulrasheed Maina, former Pension Reform Task Team chairman, uncovered the role allegedly played by the bank to facilitate the massive fraud.
The bank had employed Aliyu Biu, a younger brother to Maina, who allegedly agreed to move N8 billion police pension money from First Bank to Fidelity Bank.
Biu’s colleagues told the EFCC that he was planted to run shoddy deals for Maina.
PREMIUM TIMES, an online newspaper, also quoted sources who alleged that Biu was the fixer for Maina’s alleged money laundry scheme.
“While it seems he (Biu) was planted in the bank to facilitate his elder brother’s alleged money laundering schemes, his employment would not have been possible but for Maina’s coup in helping to allegedly move the N8 billion police pension account from First Bank to Fidelity Bank,” PREMIUM TIMES quoted an unamend EFCC source.
Those involved in the alleged pension racket, mainly employees of Fidelity Bank, were rounded up by the EFCC for allegedly helping Maina to launder the funds.
They are Danjuma Zubairu (group head, private banking) and Abubakar Gwambe (account head, Abuja branch).
Oluwatoyin Meseke (assistant banking executive in the marketing unit who also doubles as Maina’s account officer) was also arrested.
Another report in PREMIUM TIMES on November 4, 2015 detailed how Fidelity Bank officials at the Abuja branch allegedly moved several millions of naira to Maina’s companies without complying with the law.
It stated how Maina’s bank handlers, relying on telephone instructions and scanned email messages, allegedly moved hundreds of millions of naira from the accounts of the three companies to bureau de change operators.
The operators then allegedly converted the monies to dollars for onward delivery to Maina.
The EFCC accused Maina, including three companies linked to him – Cluster Logistics, Kangolo Dynamic Cleaning, Drew Investment and Construction Company – of corruption and money laundering, with officials of Fidelity Bank as accomplices.
