FCMB manager fleeces bank with 35 fake accounts
By Toyosi Ogunseye, Published: Sunday, 21 Mar 2010

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested a former bank manager with First City Monument Bank, in Katsina State, Mrs. Zainab Rufai Yusuf, for allegedly using fake accounts to fleece the bank of millions of naira.



Yusuf, SUNDAY PUNCH gathered, allegedly opened 35 fake accounts, granted bogus loans, forged security documents, signed fake overdrafts, as well as issued dud cheques for fraudulent purposes.



The EFCC Head of Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Babafemi, who spoke to our correspondent on Saturday, confirmed the arrest.



According to him, the ex-bank manager was arrested after she allegedly connived with a customer to arbitrarily grant N1m loan to each of the 35 accounts using fraudulent documents



A top official of the bank, who craved anonymity, told our correspondent that the bank was the one that reported the matter to the EFCC, adding, “We don‘t condone illegal practices. She has been shown her way out.”



Curiously, however, the bank refused to issue an official reaction when our correspondent contacted it.



But Babafemi, who described Yusuf‘s alleged offence as a ‘mega fraud,’ added that the anti-graft agency would continue to go after fraudulent characters in the banking industry.



He said, “If you remember, some of the ousted bank chiefs were given the booth because they granted bogus loans to individuals. Now this has rubbed off on other categories of staff in the sector. It was what the former managing directors did that led to their prosecution that we arrested Yusuf for.”



It was learnt that the ex-manager‘s journey to EFCC‘s detention started with the loans she approved for two salary accounts owned by the Managing Director of Maslaha Motors and Safalma Oil, Mr. Mansur Ali Mash, in Katsina State.



According to Babafemi, the commission‘s investigations showed that Yusuf benefited from the loans to the extent that they became unserviceable by Mash.



Babafemi explained, “Various large amounts were pushed into the accounts and this attracted a query from the bank‘s regional office in Kano for their non-performance.



“When the heat became too much for Yusuf to bear, she decided to deceive the regional office by allegedly creating 35 new accounts and granting all the accounts an overdraft facility of N1m each with the hope that she will service Mash‘s accounts with the N35m from all the new accounts. But she needed external help to do this. So she contacted Mash, who agreed to the plan.



“With pressure from the head office, Yusuf decided to fill one hole by digging new ones. She once again conspired with Mash, the owner of the two non-performing accounts, to open 35 new ones and secured temporary overdraft facility of N1m each to the accounts thus bringing the overdraft sum to N35m.”



The EFCC spokesman, who said Mash allegedly provided 35 persons to act as the owners of the account, added that Yusuf abused her office by waiving all banking procedures for opening of accounts.



The banker, he added, accepted fake documents in opening the accounts.



The spokesman said, “It was important for the suspects to make the 35 accounts look genuine as possible, so they had to submit some documents. Unfortunately, they couldn‘t even get authentic documents to perpetrate the fraud.



“Yusuf approved the production and acceptance of all the forged security documents needed for opening an account especially the Certificate of Occupancy, which is necessary when a bank is granting a customer an overdraft.



“Despite the fact that Mash had allegedly sourced for 35 persons to front as owners of the accounts, it was learnt that Yusuf still allowed him to sign all the documents submitted for the processing of the overdrafts.”



Babafemi said, “In addition to the forgery that had been perpetrated, Yusuf granted Mash another N2.5m loan and allowed him to personally sign all the documents submitted for the processing of the overdrafts.”



After allegedly signing all the documents for the temporary loans, Mash withdrew all the money from the 35 accounts himself. The spokesman said, “In order to make withdrawal easy, Yusuf issued cheques and counter-cheques from her office to Mash.



“All the transactions in this fraud were between these two principal suspects. We figured that the reason why they went to look for 35 people in the first place was because they needed 35 different passport photographs for the accounts because these people were not involved in the transactions.”



SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that in her statement, Yusuf admitted that she got N8.5m from the deal, while Mash got N21.5m and they have promised to refund the money to the bank.



Babafemi, however, said their promise to refund the money to the bank would not deter the anti-graft agency from prosecuting them.



Meanwhile, the bank was not forthcoming with an official reaction when our correspondent got in touch with it last Thursday.



The bank‘s head, Corporate Affairs, Mr. Tunde Sofowora, and his colleague, Mr. Remi Njoku, promised to send the bank‘s reaction to the story on Friday.



On Friday, Njoku kept calling the newsroom that he had sent the bank‘s reaction to the electronic mail addresses of THE PUNCH, the Editor of the SUNDAY PUNCH and our correspondent.



But nothing was found in these e-mail boxes even after our correspondent told Njoku that the mails he claimed that he sent were not delivered.