The former Fidelity Bank employee, Mr. Frank Ogboko, a Chartered Accountant and a member of ICAN since 1990 has revealed discrepancies and fraud involving two companies, Oil Recovery and Environmental Services Limited and ERES N.V limited of depositors fund totaling N11billion, culminating from huge debt balances from rogue loans and capital market fraudulent activities involving both companies and the management of Fidelity Bank.
he noticed the discrepancy in the
balance sheet and notified his immediate boss, Mr. Boye Ogunbolade, saying that
the actions of the bank was not in line with the banks’ corporate and financial
guidelines, but was persuaded to drop
the matter and was eventually sacked.
He said. “Why my appointment was
terminated was that I discovered a huge fraud perpetrated by officers of
Fidelity bank. The officers involved are; Mr. Reginald Ihejiahi ( the former
M.D) Chief Willie Obiano ( the current Governor of Anambra State), Mr.
Ikemefuna Mbagwu, Mr. Sam Obijiaku and Mr. Boye Ogunbolade.
“These are the officers involved
in the fraud.
“I alerted Mr. Ogunbolade, my
immediate boss that what the bank is doing is not good, that we are not making
provisions in line with the provisional guidelines, and that is the N6.3
billion, and that we committed capital market fraud which is very very
bad.
“He took offence and reported the
matter to the M.D (Mr. Ihejiahi). They removed me from the unit, took me to the
Corporate Services Unit.
“Right from the time the two
companies took the loan, and they’ve taken subsequent loan from the bank, it
beholds in the directors of the company to pay back the loans they took, but
they did not and frantic effort was made by the bank to recover the loans.
“The bank statement relating to
the accounts of both companies was above N3 billion each for the companies as
the debit balance as at 31st October 2005. The two account balances were not
cleared by the directors of the company because if the directors paid off the
loan, they will give us the instruments used in paying back the loan.
They cannot pay it by cash. The
bank wiped it off the system.
“The other case of the capital
market fraud. What they did was that they will take money from the vault of
Fidelity Bank. Vaults in various branches nationwide.
“They have regional officers in
charge. They direct the regional officers to source money from their regions to
pay into named accounts.
“These monies are then used by
the beneficiaries to buy Fidelity bank shares. This implies that the board
bought the shares by themselves. This they use in financing the initial public
offer that they went for and then they say the shares have been oversubscribed.
“No, it is the depositors’ money
that they used in buying the shares.
“And then they created loan
accounts for such individuals. Those loan accounts are then converted into
loans without appraisals and without recouping the funds.
“You now find out that the
beneficiaries of those loans might not be able to pay back the loans because of
the share prices explosion which brings the share prices down. The account
beneficiaries still carry the loans the bank being what they are, know how to
manage it. Those loans are created for people who did not apply for loans.
“In this case, the Central Bank
of Nigeria did not go for investigations.
“This is how the capital market
fraud was of N4.7 billion and the falsification of account to the tune of N6.3
billion totaling N11 Billion came about.
“This is what Chief Willie Obiano
and his group, including Mr. Peter Obi (the former governor of Anambra State)
did, because Obi was the chairman then. It was a big fraud they committed.
“The two companies were in
existence. I have documents showing their correspondence with Fidelity Bank
that they existed.
“They can float a company; make A
B or C as directors. Things can happen in Nigeria. The person will be coming to
take money and give it to them.
“At the end of it all they know
that, oh we cannot payback this money, they will just remove it gently from the
system.
“I reported this matter to the
then Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim. I sat down one on one with him,
I gave him copies of the documents. I reported this matter to the EFCC, I gave
them copies, I have my own copies and nothing happened.
“Even when I came out, I had
discussions with the office of the NSA, this matter went to them. They did
investigations. They said Francis, what you did was correct; the bank actually
did the fraud. The fraud was actually committed, they investigated and it is
true.
“Nigeria and her corruption and
settlement palaver, I don’t know how they were settling. The IG of police would
receive a document and nothing happened. EFCC would receive a document and
nothing happened.
“When the whole thing happened it was Tafida
that was there at the EFCC, I am surprised the way things are happening in
Nigeria.
“The names of the Officers of the
bank involved were mentioned in the petitions I sent to the EFCC, Reginald
Ihejiahi, Chief Willie Obiano, Sam Obijiaku, Ikemefuna Mbagwu, and Boye
Ogunbolade. These were the key officers that were in charge of the affairs of
the bank.
“The bank is an entity. They
cannot say they were not aware of what was happened at the bank because we gave
then reports every day.
“Because of this, there have been
several threats to my life. I don’t stay in my house until this case is over.
For them if I am no longer alive, then this case is over because nobody will
challenge them. I am a shareholder of the bank and also a former staff of the
bank.
“I spent nearly one year in Ikoyi
Prisons but was later granted bail in the High Court by Justice Kehinde
Johnson. Since I came out, for the bank to go and prosecute this matter now,
they refused going because they know
that with the documents I have they will close down the bank. The N4.7
billion capital market fraud and N6.3 billion falsification of account.
“Chief Willie Obiano was there,
Mr. Peter Obi was the chairman when all these were going on, and the money they
used in paying to the account of Mr. Peter Obi’s company, Next International, I
have documents relating to that.
“Since that thing was done, even
though I was released on bail by the High court, they sent assassins to my
house to look for me, but thank God I was not in the house that day. After that
I had to relocate.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment