Stanbic IBTC staff in alleged N250m fraud

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, South West, Nigeria has adjourned till 24th of May 2023, a case of Stanbic IBTC staff alleged to have fraudulently converted the sum of N250 Million to his personal use.

When the case was mentioned, the Police prosecuting qq counsel M. U.Usman told the court that, the defendant has approached the bank for amicable settlement, in view of this development he urged the court to give a fairly long adjournment. The defendant’s counsel Mr. M.N. Oku did not raise any objection.

Consequently, the presiding Judge, Abimbola Awogboro adjourned till 24th of May, 2023 for a report of settlement.

Ajayi Olusola a staff of Stanbic IBTC bank was arraigned before the court based on a petition written and jointly signed on behalf of Stanbic IBTC Bank by Kayode Agbetoye

Manager, Investigations and Fraud Risk and Rekia Eletu Head, Investigations and Fraud Risk, the petition titled “Alleged Diversion of Approved Written -off Amounts for Bad Loans by Olusola Ajayi Others.

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The petition was written and addressed to the Commissioner of Police Special Fraud Unit 13b, Milverton Avenue Ikoyi Lagos.Nigeria.

Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC in the said petition stated thus: We are currently investigating a case of alleged diversion of approved Written-off Loan by some staff members and others.

“The amount to be written-off, as approved by the Board, were expected to be posted into loan accounts of the beneficiary debtors, to nil off the outstanding loans as provisioned. It was however discovered that the written off amounts were diverted and credited into personal and corporate accounts where the funds were utilized by the account owners.

“Our preliminary findings revealed that on 21 April 2021, the Bank’s Board approved to write off a total amount of N37,628,329.00 on 28 defaulting customers’ accounts. The request was to write off the outstanding exposures (as well as the debit interest that would have accrued before the actual entries are passed). Also, the Board’s approval was obtained on 21 April 2021 to write -off a total amount of N2,462,057,201.71 on 848 defaulting customers’ accounts.

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Some of the amounts approved for write off into the loan accounts of the defaulting customers were discovered to have been diverted and credited into a Corporate Account, Able System Services Nigeria Ltd. (ASSNL), a customer of the bank.

A review of the transfers from ASSNL’s account showed that 36 beneficiaries in other banks received a total amount of N55,118,002 between 2015 and 2021. Three (3) of these recipients are customers of Stanbic IBTC bank – Ajayi Olusola (staff), Ayodele Omoniyi Olaogun and Hakeem Abdulliadi. Olusola Ajayi received a total amount of N12.5Million into his Bank account from between November 2020 and May 2021. Also, Ayodele Omoniyi Olaogun received a total amount of N9.74million to his Access Bank account from ASSNL between September2015 and May 2021.

The petition was investigated and at the end of the investigation a five count charge was filed before the court against Ajayi Olusola and his company Abel Services Nigeria Limited and others at large by the Police Legal Officer Barrister Azubuike Sylvester.