06/04/2016

‘Saraki wired over ‎£1.5m to Fortis Bank for purchase of UK property’ – EFCC

The trial of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal for alleged false declaration of assets commenced on Tuesday, April 5.

As the court convened, the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs presented Michael Wetkas, one of its witnesses before the presiding judge, Danladi Umar, following the insistence of the court that the trial must commence.
One of Saraki’s legal counsels, Paul Usoro had requested the court to adjourn proceedings as a result of the absence of the lead counsel, Kanu Agabi.
The court however, refused to adjourn and proceeded with the cross examination of the witnesses.
Wetkas, who is an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, told the court that about N4 billion was found in Saraki’s account with GTBank during the course of the investigation.
He also revealed that some of the money came in as loans and were mostly used to acquire properties.
Furthermore, Wetkas told the court that a staff of GTBank revealed to the agency that a total of N77 million was paid into Saraki’s account by a certain Ubi in 50 lodgements on a single day.
Another person, Adama allegedly made fifty transactions into Saraki’s GTBank account in a single day in various denominations.
Ubi and Adama were both personal assistants to Saraki during his stint as governor.
Wetkas said: “When the defendant was governor of Kwara state between 2003 and 2011. The commission received several petitions from various groups. One of the petitioners was Kwara Freedom Network. They brought several petitions all bordering on abuse of office by the defendant, misappropriation of public fund and money laundering.”
“Sometime in 2014 the then executive chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde received intelligence reports of suspicious transactions involving the defendant. He set up a team of investigators. Our task was to investigate the intelligence reports.”
“The investigation report was reviewed by my team. In the course of our investigation, we discovered that there were several companies which were linked to the defendant. Some of them include Carlisle Properties Investment Ltd, Skyview Properties Ltd, LimKvars Ltd, and TIly-lie Ltd.”
Some of the companies maintain accounts at Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), Zenith Bank, Access Bank, and other banks.
“From the investigation, it was discovered that the defendant maintained three accounts at GTB. The first account is a naira currency account; the second is a US dollar account, and the third is a pound sterling account.”
“The naira account was analyzed, and it was discovered that between 2005 and 2013, the account had an in-flow of about N4 billion. The major source of in-flow into the accounts was loans taken from GTB within the period. The loans were about N2.5 billion, and the other source of in-flows into the account was massive lodgments by individuals. Other in flows into the account were from the companies.”
“It was discovered that money was used for the purchase of property. The dollar account was also analyzed. The major source of in-flow into the dollar account was Tily-lie Properties Ltd, which was about $2m. Another source was from Bureau de Change companies.”
“And the rest was cash lodgments by individuals. The cash in the dollar account between 2009 and 2013 was $6m. We discovered that up to $3.4m was wired to American Express Services Europe Limited, which was used to fund the defendant’s American Express Service New York card account number 374588216836009.”
“The defendant wired over 1.5m pound sterling to Fortis Bank for the purchase of property in the UK.”
“After that, because of the suspicious in-flows into the account, the bank (GTB) officials were invited. The reason for the invitation of the officials was that some of the individuals who were making the cash lodgment into the account were bank officials.”
“One Oluwa Tujimu reported to the commission. From our of interactions with him, we discovered that some of the lodgments were made through a superior at the bank, Bayo Daudu, who was the relationship manager of the account. In our interaction with Daudu, it was discovered the cash sums were handed over to him by the defendant for lodgment in the account.”
“According to Daudu, he goes to Kwara state government house to collect the money from the defendant for lodgment into the account at the GRA Ilorin branch of GTB. We discovered one name, Abdul Adama, who made transaction 50 times into the account in a single day. The sum was broken down to N600, 000 and N900,000, and was lodged in the same day.”
“Subsequently, after that one Ubi made a lodgment on the same day about 20 times in the same range of N600, 000 and N900, 000. We looked for Adama and invited him. He reported that the cash sums were handed over to him by the defendant and stated further that the cash sums that were lodge in by Ubi into the same account were from the accused.”
“Adama and Ubi were personal assistants to the accused while he was governor.
The investigator further told the court that the agency found out in the course of its investigations that Saraki owned Carlisle properties which has its office at Saka Tinubu, Lagos.
All the transactions in the account of the company were allegedly directed by Saraki.

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