The Nigeria EFCC, has raised concerns over the involvement of financial institutions in enabling a large-scale fraud that cost Nigerians billions of naira.
According to the recent investigation, the negligence amongst small deposit banks, fintech companies and microfinance bank allowed the fraudsters comfortably move the stolen money freely through Nigeria’s financial system.
The Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren, shared that the commission discovered about N180.7 billion tied to investment scam of which N162 billion made up crypto transactions. Six Fin-tech based platforms, one new generation bank and some other microfinance bank were used to launder the illicit money.
The N162 billion passed through a single bank, and based on the investigations, a single customer operated about 960 accounts belonging to the same bank.
Source: Vanguardngr
He also shared the details on how the N18.7 billion scam was carried out. Based on the details shared, one of the scams involved an airline discount scheme used to deceive victims, while the other was linked to Fred and Farid Investment Limited, also known as FF Investment.
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So far, the EFCC has recorded that over 700 victims lost N651.1 million through one of the schemes, although N33.63 million has been recovered and returned.
The director explained that these banking institutions that held the stolen money ignored the simple basic banking procedures, and that allowed criminals to convert stolen money into digital assets. Most of them were quickly moved to unknown destinations without detection.
The EFCC has instructed all financial regulators to enforce strict compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC), Customer Due Diligence (CDD), and Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) regulations. Uwujaren stressed that any financial institution that doesn’t implement all the new regulations would be suspended and prosecuted
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