The Nation Newspaper

Tag: fraud

  • Alleged N1.7b fraud: EFCC arrests Lagos businessman

    Alleged N1.7b fraud: EFCC arrests Lagos businessman

    Firm loses fortune in phoney deal

    Outdoor giant Afromedia is battling to handle its most difficult brief ever — how to retrieve a fortune invested in a phoney deal.

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is helping.

    The anti-graft agency has arrested a Lagos businessman, Alhaji Mohammed Gobir, for allegedly defrauding the foremost outdoor advertising company of cash estimated to be N1.7 billion in various currencies.

    Gobir was picked up at his Ikoyi home and put in detention.

    A source in the commission said: “The mega heist allegedly fetched Gobir $3,500,000,   N514,457,151.87,   $2,102,740,  and 51,000 pounds sterling at various times.

    “Gobir, a 55–year-old father of two, was picked up by EFCC operatives  early Saturday at his Ikoyi residence and is still being interrogated at the Lagos office of the anti-graft agency.

    “The suspect allegedly defrauded the advertising company through a phoney investment deal.

    “The suspect was allegedly introduced to Afromedia sometime in 2008 by their private placement consultants, Synergy Capital Advisory Limited, as a high networth investor who was willing to inject N1,000,000,000 into the company, through the acquisition of shares.

    “Based on his touted pedigree as potential investor, Gobir cozy up to the management and in no time became chairman of the Business Development Committee of the board of directors of the company, a position which he later used to defraud the company.

    “Having earned the trust of the company owners, Gobir started demanding large amounts of money, which he termed as business expenses to international consultants, Royal Exchange Burue in the United Kingdom in order to facilitate and secure investments from his bank in the UK, Natwest Bank London.

    [ad id=”403656″]“The company gave Gobir  $1,000,000 in cash and paid for his travel expenses on a first class return ticket to UK where he would meet with the purported investors, which investigation later showed never existed nor were the meetings ever held.”

    The commission said the fraud was uncovered when the group managing director of Afromedia followed Gobir to London on a business trip.

    The source added: “On one good day after the suspect had collected several amounts of money and made several trips to the UK to meet with the purported investors, the group managing director of Afromedia accompanied him to the UK for another round of meeting ostensibly to close the deal.

    “But as soon as they landed in the UK, Gobir made a telephone call in which his travel companion overheard him scream aloud, saying his assets were seized by UK anti-money laundering authorities.

    “He even showed the GMD an email sent to him for the alleged seizure.

    “The suspect confessed to  the MD of Afromedia that his money( $250,000,000) was seized by the British authorities five years earlier for alleged money laundering and that he was currently financially handicapped and he needed a bailout of $3,817,000 to get the European Union Money Laundering Waiver Certificate.

    “The suspect later presented a “waiver certificate”, to the company and promised to pay them the monies he had collected.”

    The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren who confirmed the arrest, said investigation into the scam continued.

  • Man docked for alleged N10.5m fraud

    A 38-year-old man, Kazeem Giwa, has been arraigned in an Ikorodu Magistrate’s Court for allegedly absconding with N10, 518,400 given to him by one Emeka Okeke to buy baby goods.

    The prosecutor, Woman Corporal Kemi Adeniran, told the court that Giwa, of No.16 Odoleke Street, committed the offence of stealing on February 29, 2015, at No. 22, Shina Street, Ijegun Road, Lagos.

    “He obtained the money in two installments of one million and nine million naira on the pretext that he would deliver baby holding goods to the complainant,” the prosecutor told the court.

    “He had earlier won the complainant’s confidence by supplying baby goods worth two million naira at a very good price. There was a balance of one million naira left with him, but he persuaded the complainant to give him nine million naira more so that he could get more goods.”

    She said the offence contravened Sections 285 (3) (5)b and 312 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2011.

    The accused pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge and was granted bail in the sum of one million naira and two sureties in the like sum.

    The Magistrate, Mr. O. O. Olatunji, adjourned the case till September 17, 2015.

     

     

  • Banks not doing enough to tackle online fraud, says survey

    Banks not doing enough to tackle online fraud, says survey

    ABOUT half of banks and payment systems prefer to handle cyber incidents, rather than invest in equipment which can prevent them, a survey has revealed.

    The survey was conducted by Kaspersky Lab and  B2B International among company representatives to find out their attitudes toward data security, including financial companies’ policies towards protection from online fraud.

    More than 5000 representatives, including 131 banks and payment services, from 26 countries participated.

    During the survey, 48 per cent of financial organisations said they  protect their clients from online fraud, aiming at mitigating the consequences rather than preventing incidents entirely.

    It said 29 per cent of companies believe it is cheaper and more effective to address cases of fraud, rather than attempt to prevent them.

    According to the responses, whenever a cyber-fraud incident involving a client’s account occurs, only 41 per cent of organisations take measures to prevent it from re-occurring in the future.

    According to Engineer IT, the survey showed that 36 per cent of companies conduct an analysis of the vulnerability exploited in the attack, and 38 per cent compensate the losses. The most popular policy among companies is to try to find out who was behind the attack: two-thirds (66 per cent) of financial organisations are guilty of this practice.

    Global Head, Fraud Prevention Division at Kaspersky Lab, Ross Hogan, said relying on mitigating the negative consequences of fraud is similar to trying to treat the symptoms of an illness rather than its cause.

    The symptoms will recur, and the illness will progress. In this respect, Kaspersky Lab recommends that you do not forget how important prevention is. Many of the world’s leading banks have acknowledged this and have implemented “root cause fraud prevention”, but alarmingly many still rely on “reactive fraud detection”.

    Experts recommend that banks and payment services use comprehensive online fraud protection methods to protect the bank’s clients at several levels.

    One such method is a fraud prevention platform which includes threat control tools installed on client devices, as well as the server component located within the bank’s information infrastructure. Through the special code imbedded in the bank’s web-page, this component can remotely detect a client device infection.

    Hogan laments that each year, cybercriminals invent more and more sophisticated methods of attack, and if the banks do not have preventive measures in place, it enables further growth in the numbers of financial cybercrime and increased losses.

    A recent example is the discovery of Blue Termite – a cyber espionage campaign that has been targeting hundreds of organisations in Japan for over the past two years.

    The attackers hunt for confidential information and utilise a zero-day Flash player exploit and a sophisticated backdoor, which is customised for each victim.

    In October last year, Kaspersky Lab researchers encountered a never before seen malware sample, which stood out from others because of its complexity.

    Further analysis has shown that this sample is only a small part of a large and sophisticated cyber espionage campaign. The list of targeted industries includes governmental organisations, heavy industries, financial, chemical, satellite, media, educational organisations, medical, the food industry and others.

    To infect their victims, Blue Termite operators utilise several techniques. Before July this year, they mostly used spear-phishing emails – sending malicious software as an attachment to an email message with content, which would most likely attract a victim’s attention.

    However in July, the operators changed tactics and have started to spread the malware via a zero-day Flash exploit. The attackers have compromised several Japanese websites so that visitors of the sites would automatically download an exploit once they are on the website and become infected. This is referred to as a drive-by-downloads technique.

    After a successful infection, a sophisticated backdoor is deployed on a targeted machine. The backdoor is capable of stealing passwords, downloading and executing additional payload, retrieving files and conducting other dangerous exploits.

    One of the most interesting things about the malware used by the Blue Termite actor is that each victim is supplied with a unique malware sample that is made in a way that it could only be launched on a specific PC, targeted by the Blue Termite actor.

    According to Kaspersky Lab researchers, this has been done in order to make it difficult for security researchers to analyse the malware and detect it.

     

  • $4.5b tax holiday: EFCC grills 10, uncovers fresh N600m fraud in NIPC

    $4.5b tax holiday: EFCC grills 10, uncovers fresh N600m fraud in NIPC

    About 25 oil firms are being investigated in connection with the illegal $4.5b tax waivers granted by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), The Nation learnt yesterday.

    Besides, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)  agency has uncovered N600million fraud on phantom training of 170 workers in the commission.

    About N3million was remitted to each of the 170 officials but  the beneficiaries were later directed to pay N2million into the account of a bureau de change operator.

    Ten top officials of the NIPC and an external auditor have been quizzed by the EFCC.

    The NIPC officials are said to have sworn to stop the investigation at “whatever cost”.

    According to sources, EFCC investigators have discovered that 25 oil companies benefited from the $4.5billion tax holiday.

    It was gathered that the tax relief was given to the 25 firms under the guise of pioneer status

    A highly-placed source said: “The probe of the $4.5billion tax waivers by the NIPC has reached an appreciable level. In all, 25 oil firms were involved.

    We have interrogated 10 members of the staff of NIPC and invited an external auditor of the commission.

    “The tax holiday showed that the NIPC denied the nation the huge sum between 2010 and June 2014 when it was stopped.

    “One of the key things in the ongoing investigation is that the law was certainly misapplied for some selfish reasons to aid a few oil firms to evade tax.”

    Responding to a question, the source added: “The 25 oil firms ought not to have benefited from the Industrial Development ( Income Tax Relief) Act. They fall under the Petroleum Profits Tax Act (PPTA).

    Preliminary findings by EFCC investigators revealed the following:

    *Under the existing Industrial Development (Income Tax Relief) Act (IDA) and Company Income Tax Act(CITA), companies engaged in petroleum exploration and production were not eligible for grant of pioneer status

    *The Federal Inland Revenue Service(FIRS) was not aware of any Federal Executive Council approvals on the pioneer status schedule

    *The grant of pioneer status by NIPC to the 25 oil firms was a breach of the law in relation to taxation and incentive matters.

    RMAFC recommended that companies involved in the Upstream Petroleum activities should not benefit under CITA/IDA nor should they come under the purview if NIPC for pioneer status administration.

    A document obtained by our correspondent said: “That companies in Nigeria are generally taxed under the CITA while those engaged in petroleum operations are taxed specifically under the PPTA.

    “The PPTA is meant to regulate the financial activities of oil companies engaged in crude oil production, petroleum marketing and the servicing companies that engage in such activities as seismic survey, drilling and data collection.

    “It is the profits generated by companies engaged directly or indirectly in petroleum operations that are subject to tax under the PPTA, while profits generated by marketing and servicing companies are taxed under the CITA.

    “The committee was asked to note the definition of ‘petroleum operations’ under Section 2 of PPTA, which defines upstream and downstream operations. It applies to companies that win and obtain and engage in petroleum operations on their own account.

    “That the President’s power under Section 23(2) of CITA to exempt by order, any company from the provisions of CITA or from the payment of tax, must be construed as limiting the exemption to companies that are within the contemplation of the  provision of CITA And cannot be interpreted to include companies outside the contemplation of the CITA.   Any income taxed under the CITA is exempted under the PPTA.”

    But some of the oil companies were said to have claimed that “they were lured into the tax waiver/ holiday because they did not know that they were qualified for such under the NIPC Act”.

    A source added: “NIPC lured the oil companies to seek pioneer status, believing that they qualified, by using tax consultants.”

    On May 10, the former Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala raised the alarm that the Federal Government had lost over $20b to tax holidays fraudulently granted companies by officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC),

    She said: “Pioneer status (tax holidays) was granted to companies whose products do not meet the requirements of the list of industries or products specified in the schedule to the Act.

    “NIPC officials granted tax holidays for a straight five-year period, contrary to the provision of Section 10 of the Act, which states that the tax relief period for a pioneer company shall commence from the production date of the company and shall continue for a period of three years in the first instance, and may be extended for a period of one year and thereafter for another one year, or for a period of two years subject to the satisfaction of Mr. President that certain requirements, such as rate of expansion, standard of efficiency, level of development of company, among others, are met.”

    As EFCC investigators are probing the $4.5billion tax holiday, they have uncovered a N600million fraud.The cash was taken for a training.

    A document obtained by our correspondent said in part: “The purported training was to cost N600million. About N3million was remitted into the account of each of the affected 170 staff. But each staff was directed to pay N2million to a bureau de change operator in Zone 4 in Abuja.

    “Those involved were from the Administration, Finance and Accounts, Procurement and Audit departments in NIPC.

    “One of the officials under investigation used to be a conduit for taking money out of the commission for the cartel operating in NIPC. He has collected cash advance of more than N80million outside the N600million. He owns an auto sales shop in Abuja.”

  • Four undergraduates held in Rivers for ‘fraud, robbery’

    The Rivers State Police Command has paraded three students of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) for alleged involvement in armed robbery in Choba/ Alakahia, Port Harcourt, the state capital, last month.

    Nwachinemere Benjamine (24), Osaki Bob (22) and Reginald Sekibo (21) were reportedly arrested by men of the State Armed Robbery Squad (SARS) during an operation on July 28.

    They were among the over 30 suspects the command paraded recently.

    Also being held by the police is a 300-Level Computer Science undergraduate of the University of Lokoja, in Koji State, Precious Okwudili (26).

    He allegedly defrauded a retired female teacher of N3 million under the pretence of ill-health.

    Okwudili was said to have lied to his victim, a family friend, that he was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart disease and needed the money for an urgent surgery abroad.

    The student confessed to the crime, saying the woman is his mother in the Lord.

    He blamed his action on the devil.

    The police said N812,000 was recovered from him.

    Also, a monarch in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area and two other leaders of the area were paraded for allegedly sponsoring cultism.

    The Rivers community has been enmeshed in cultism in the past years.

    Many people have been killed in cult-related activities.

    The monarch and his suspected accomplice were arrested in their homes on August 1 and 3 and have been in police detention.

    Parading them with over 30 others suspects arrested for various offences, Police Commissioner Chris Ezike said the community leaders organised and taxed members of the community N1 million, which was donated to a “notorious” cult leader, Don-Wali, of the Icelander group.

    Ezike said the arrest of the community leaders had “opened a new chapter in the connivance, involvement and sponsorship of community keepers in cultism”.

    The police chief said the onslaught against criminals and their sponsors was part of the command’s “Project Rescue Rivers State” aimed at “restoring sanity and security to the state”.

    He said the suspects would be charged to court.

    On a police sergeant who killed a commercial driver in Port Harcourt, David Lagbaara, last Friday, Ezike said the killer cop had been dismissed and charged to court for murder, after being found guilty in an orderly room trial.

    He said: “We are in touch with the family of the deceased driver, the National Union of Road Transport workers (NURTW) and other stakeholders, who have calmed the situation.

    “The Force has taken actions pursuant to ensuring that justice is served. We know that these actions may not be enough to bring back their breadwinner but it will serve as a deterrent.”

  • Lawyer arraigned for ‘N4.8million fraud’

    A lawyer Johnson Anumudu was yesterday arraigned before a Lagos Magistrate’s Court, Igbosere, Lagos for allegedly defrauding his colleagues of N4.8million.

    The defendant was alleged to have obtained the money from two other lawyers seeking an office accommodation.

    Anumudu pretended as the owner of the property where the complainant sought office space.

    Arraigning the lawyer before Magistrate M. Owumi on nine counts of impersonation, stealing and obtaining under false pretences, prosecuting Inspector Philip Osijale told the court that the offence was committed in September last year, at 15B, Fatai Arobieke Street, Lekki phase 1.

    He told the court that the defendant fraudulently obtained N2.8million from one Olufunke Afolabi with the pretence of renting her an office accommodation, adding that another N2million was obtained from one Adebisi Fajuyigbe by the defendant for same purpose.

    ýHe alleged that after the complainants have paid and commenced renovation, the real owner of the property surfaced.

    Osijale said when the complainants confrontedý the defendant and demanded a refund of their money, he issued them dud cheques of N400,000.

    According to the prosecutor, the alleged offences were punishable Sections 312(3), 285(1), 378(1), 319(b) and 313(1)(b) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos, 2011.

    Anumudu pleaded not guilty and was granted N500,000 bail with a surety in like sum.

    The matter was adjourned till August 25.

  • Two charged with N1.4m fraud

    Two men, Ekweme Isaiah, 30 and Solomon Ali, 33, has been arraigned before an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrate’s Court on charges bordering stealing and fraudulent act.

    The defendants were said to have fraudulently obtained the sum of N1, 446,750, one flat screen television and a fridge from one Yadiba Ezugwu at No 3,Kano Street, Ebute Meta,Lagos in July, 2013.

    It was said that Isaiah introduced Solomon to his kinsman, Yadiba, who in turn loaned Solomon the sum of N1.4m to start a business.

    Yadiba invited the police after Solomon failed to refund the money.

    The offence according to the police prosecutor,  Cyracuis Osuji, are punishable under Sections 409 ,312and 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

    The charges read in part: “That you Ekweme Isaiah ‘m’ ,Solomon Ali ‘m’  some day in the month of July , at about 1000 hours, at 3, Kano  Street, Ebute Meta, in the Lagos magisterial district did unlawfully and fraudulently obtain the sum of N1,446750.00, under false pretence that you are transacting a genuine business with the money knowing same to be false and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 312 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.”

    The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges.

    Following the plea of innocence of the accused, the presiding magistrate, Mrs. O.I Adelaja, admitted him to bail in the sum of N100, 000.00, with two sureties in the like sum.

    The case was adjourned till September 2 for trial.

  • Two arrested for alleged fraud in Edo

    Two officials of the Edo State Committee on Forestry were arrested yesterday in Benin, the state capital, for allegedly forging a First Bank teller and stamp to defraud the government of millions of naira.

    The officials, identified simply as Etinosa, an Area Forest Officer attached to Ehor in Uhunwode Local Government Area, and Osifo, an ad hoc worker in charge of the committee’s patrol team, were arrested by the committee chairman, Comrade Samson Abu, in his office.

    Abu told reporters that First Bank handled transactions for the committee and that tellers as well as bank printouts were submitted to his office through the committee’s secretary.

    The chairman said when the committee’s secretary tendered the file containing the transactions of the two officials, his mind prompted him to verify from the bank.

    This, he said, he did and the suspects’ transactions, worth millions of naira, were confirmed to be fraudulent. government money defrauded by the suspects.

    Abu said: “…All files pass through the committee’s secretary to my table. With the pressure mounted on me to sign the files, my mind told me something was wrong somewhere. So, I called the police with the committee’s secretary to verify from the bank.”

  • Man charged with N12.8m fraud

    The Special Fraud Unit (SFU) yesterday arraigned self styled Bureau De change operator, Hassan Aliyu, for alleged fraud.

    The prosecution said Aliyu obtained $64,700 (about N12.8million) from Alhaji Lawal Shittu after claiming that he would convert it to naira.

    SFU said the defendant obtained the cash without giving the complainant its naira equivalent.

    The offence of conspiracy to obtain money by false pretence contravenes Section 8A of the Advance Fee Fraud Act 2006.

    The accused, who said he could not understand English, had the charge translated to him in Yoruba. He pleaded not guilty.

    Justice Mohammed Idris adjourned to August 7 for hearing of the bail application.

     

  • How to fight e-payment fraud, by CBN, Winigroup

    How to fight e-payment fraud, by CBN, Winigroup

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Winigroup, an information technology (IT) security provider, risk management solutions firms and experts in the banking and financial technology industry have urged stronger collaboration among regulatory authorities,  banks to secure the electronic payment system from cyber-criminals.

    Director, Banking and Payments System, CBN, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, who spoke at a fraud protection forum organised in Lagos by Winigroup and Easy Solutions to sensitise the banking industry about latest threats from hackers and e-fraudsters, said the apex bank is not resting on its oars at securing the e-payment system. He said the CBN is exploring ways to establish an industry Security Operations Centre and a Risk Information Centre, to consolidate its grip at reducing e-payments fraud to the barest minimum and enhance trust in payments system. He said the CBN is partnering relevant stakeholders to achieve this.

    Fatokun said WiniGroup has been a partner in the journey towards combating e-fraud and secure e-payments ecosystem.

    A former deputy governor at the apex bank, Mr. Tunde Lemo, urged banks to create a secured environment, brand and fraud intelligence, safe browsing and device analytics.

    “I recall that fraud incidence on magnetic stripe was as much as 90 per cent until we introduced chip and pin. We can only fight fraud if we work together.   Unless we have a forum for cross-fertilisation of ideas, we may not know what the other guys are doing,” Lemo said, adding that the CBN should quickly galvanise banks to get better technology solutions to deter e-frauds and take up consumer protection.

    Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Easy Solutions, Mr. Jeremy Boorer, said Nigerian banks are up in a battle with e-fraudsters who are daily devising new strategies to steal financial information and money from bank accounts. The firm is the only security vendor focused on the comprehensive detection and prevention of electronic fraud across all devices, channels and clouds.

    He called on the banks to urgently deploy mobile fraud prevention, transaction risk monitoring, fraud intelligence, cloud and email authentication, safe browsing and clientless malware detection on their electronic channels. He said banks need to take proactive mitigation for account takeover, internet scams and malicious activity against their brands.

    He said banks need to have proactive malware detection and threat analytics on their customer devices, real-time transaction anomaly detection and risk evaluation, transparently deploy multi-layered security in their mobile banking application as well as stop email spoofing with fastest path to full DMARC application.

    He also advised that they deploy transparent malware protection for all clients with zero friction, multi-factor authentication for web and cloud applications. He also warned that there are fake apps claiming to come from banks, saying once downloaded and financial information entered included credit/debit cards details and personal identity numbers, the bank customer money is gone as the fraudster will clone the cards or transfer monies immediately.

    Mr. Tim Akano, vice chairman, Winigroup, convener of the anti-fraud forum said fraudsters are using Bank Verification Number (BVN) policy and other means to dupe customers. He welcomed CBN’s collaboration with experts within and outside the banking industry as well as law enforcements agencies under the Nigeria electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) to take advantage of new ideas including the ones expressed at the forum.

    Akano further expressed his appreciation to the CBN for partnering with WiniGroup to ensure that the e-Payment anti-fraud event will be a regular annual event. He closed by thanking the well over 30 organisations represented primarily from the financial sector and promised that they should expect something bigger in the next edition