How Emefiele illegally lodged funds in 593 US, UK, China accounts — Investigator
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Mr Jim Obazee, special investigator probing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has said Godwin Emefiele, the former governor of the apex bank illegally kept billions of naira in 593 bank accounts in the United States, United Kingdom, and China.
President Bola Tinubu had in July appointed Obazee, a former Executive Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria to look into the activities of the Central Bank in the past years.
Obazee said the embattled bank chief lodged £543, 482,213 in fixed deposits in UK banks alone without the formal approval of the apex bank’s board of directors and the investment committee.
While submitting his final report titled, ‘Report of the Special Investigation on CBN and Related Entities (Chargeable Offences)’ to President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, Mr Obazee said all the accounts Emefiele stashed the stolen money have been traced.
“The former governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele invested Nigeria’s money without authorization in 593 foreign bank accounts in United States, China and United Kingdom, while he was in charge
“All the accounts where the billions were lodged have all been traced by the investigator.”
According to the documents, Emefiele might also face fresh criminal charges over the manner he handled the naira redesign policy.
He could be prosecuted for illegal issuance of currency under section 19 of the CBN Act alongside Tunde Sabiu, a former aide to former President Muhammadu Buhari, and 12 top directors of the CBN.
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It was gathered that the naira redesign policy was sold to Buhari at the instance of Sabiu and that the initiative was done without the approval of the board of the CBN.
The investigator discovered that former President Muhammadu Buhari did not sanction the naira redesign.
On October 6, 2022, Emefiele wrote to Buhari that he wanted to redesign and reconfigure N1000, N500 and N200 notes.
“The former President tagged along but did not approve the redesign as required by law. Buhari merely approved that the currency be printed in Nigeria. The redesign was only mentioned to the board of the CBN on December 15, 2022, after Emefiele had awarded the contract to the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc on October 31, 2022,’’ the documents said.
The special investigator said billions of naira were allegedly looted by Emefiele and other officials from the CBN’s accounts including a “fraudulent cash withdrawal of $6.23 million” — about N2.9 billion at the then official exchange rate of N461 to a dollar.
He also accused Emefiele of manipulating the exchange rate and commiting fraud in the e-Naira project of the CBN.
