Just two months after losing N1,134,491,604.31, Lotus Bank Limited is dealing with yet another financial setback after one of its workers scammed the company out of N336,993,863.35.
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LOTUS Bank found unusual Mudarabah revenues paid to customer accounts, according to an affidavit filed by Lagos lawyer Efe Eze-Iyamu and sworn by Gbenga Ojerinde, a fraud investigation officer at the bank.
A thorough investigation conducted between January 2023 and May 2024 revealed that Abdulkarim Arome Mohammed, a worker in the Financial Control Department, had engaged in fraudulent activity.
Mohammed is accused of abusing his system rights to distribute profits to three accounts that weren’t deserving: one that belonged to his wife, Khadijah Aliyu Shuaib, a FINCON Officer in charge of profit distribution; the other two were owned by Emmanuel Ocheja Odogwu and Peter Daniel. Total amount of fraud was N336,993,863.35.
Upon examination of Peter Daniel’s account, money was moved to two different banks’ personal accounts. The majority of the money from Khadijah Aliyu Shuaibu’s account was transferred to Cresco Oil & Gas Limited, which Mohammed, his spouse, and Peter Daniel own and operate.
After learning of the fraud, LOTUS Bank notified the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), which subsequently sent out notices to the responding banks instructing them to reverse the payments and freeze the accounts. While some institutions have complied in part, others have.
In order to stop the money from being spent further, Lotus Bank has asked the court to impose a post-no-debit restriction on the impacted accounts.
In the event that the court determines that the application was not justified, the bank has moreover promised to hold the financial institutions harmless.
The 28 financial institutions on the list have been directed by Judge Chukwujekwu Aneke to place post-no-debit limitations on the beneficiaries’ accounts up to the amount of money that was obtained fraudulently.
