EFCC accuses 10 banks of money laundering

The acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, on Friday accused 10 unnamed
commercial banks of money laundering.

The EFCC chief condemned the increasing wave of illicit
financial flows and vote buying in the country during
elections.

He spoke in Lagos during a round table meeting with managing
directors of financial institutions in Nigeria.

The EFFC boss said: “It is worrisome to note that in 2018,
statistics available to the EFCC shows that out of about 28
commercial banks in Nigeria, 10 banks evacuated out of Nigeria
through Travelex Nigeria Limited the sums of GBP- 50,832,560;
USD-8,057,756; EURO-39,986,560 and RAND-7,500,000. The reasons for
these evacuations are still sketchy. We must note that the impact
of illicit financial flows from the country undermine the stability
and integrity of the financial institutions.”

The EFCC boss also expressed concern that the culture of large
cash transactions was still being allowed in some banks, adding
that there was no commensurate reporting of those transactions to
the relevant agencies.

According to him, the banks still operate accounts without Bank
Verification Numbers (BVNs), and have remained complacent in
reporting those accounts to the relevant authorities, or freeze the
accounts in accordance with the CBN policy.

“The banks are rather complacent in dealing with Crypto-currency
or bitcoins as the case may be and have not taken measure to
monitor such transactions or put adequate surveillance on such
accounts. The banks are observed to still hold customers accounts
in their suspense accounts, making it difficult for law enforcement
agencies to trace and have access to those funds”, he observed.

According to him, intelligence reports have shown that banks are
aiding their customers to receive foreign financial inflows to
their accounts in neighbouring countries, where they have branches
like Ghana, Republic of Niger and other West African countries.

“The money is then couriered into Nigeria through the land
borders to circumvent declaration and reporting”, he stated.

He added that banks had the habit of under-reporting
transactions in some cases while carrying out defensive filing of
transactions after they had been consummated.

Describing them as “gatekeepers”, Magu said no country could
control illicit financial flows without the cooperation of
financial institutions.

He, therefore, charged the managing directors to join hands with
the Commission to save the country from being hijacked by
criminals.

Magu, who spoke on the theme: “Roles and Obligations of Managing
Directors of Banks in Nigeria in Curbing Vote Buying During an
Election, Illicit Financial Flows and Other Related Matters in
Nigeria”.

The EFCC Chair, in his address, recalled that the Governor of
Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, during a meeting
with Bankers’ Committee sometime in September 2018, made a
commitment to work with the EFCC and the banks to curb this
menace.

He said illicit financial flows would reduce the amount of
resources available to the government to provide critical social
services to the citizenry.

According to the anti-graft czar, vote buying during elections
would prevent credible candidates from running for political
offices, adding that “in Nigeria, vote buying has reached an
alarming proportion to the extent that politicians have now spread
their tentacles to election officials, security agencies, election
observers and even the media”.

Magu, however, lamented that the illicit financial flows out of
the country was on the increase and that politicians were still
“perpetrating and trying to finalise their acts of vote
buying.”

“It is also worthy of note that illicit financial flows during
election are a common denominator and can be tied to vote buying.
Politicians either bring in money to further their cause or try to
export money to their cohorts outside the country to get them to
influence the elections in one way or the other”, he added.