European Knight
06-02-2015, 02:37 PM
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nigerian-central-bankers-to-face-charges-of-currency-theft-1433181232
Six central bank employees and 16 private bankers said to take part in a $40 million scam
Nigerian investigators said they will charge six central-bank employees and 16 private bankers in an alleged $40 million scam to recirculate decommissioned naira bills, days after President Muhammadu Buhari took office on a pledge to tackle corruption in Africa’s top economy,
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission said officials at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s regional branches and employees at eight major banks had colluded in “a mega scam involving the theft and recirculation of defaced and mutilated currencies.”
The suspects, who are due to start appearing in court on Tuesday, “literally allowed greed and craze for materialism to becloud their sense of judgment and responsibility,” the commission wrote on its website on Monday.
“This was an isolated scheme,” central bank spokesman Ibrahim Mu’azu wrote. “The bank will continue to collaborate with the EFCC to ensure that affected CBN staff, as well as their accomplices in some commercial banks, are brought to justice.”
The case comes at the outset of Mr. Buhari’s tenure, which began Friday at an exuberant inauguration ceremony where African presidents and diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, listened to the 72-year-old erstwhile military ruler declare war on corruption.
Six central bank employees and 16 private bankers said to take part in a $40 million scam
Nigerian investigators said they will charge six central-bank employees and 16 private bankers in an alleged $40 million scam to recirculate decommissioned naira bills, days after President Muhammadu Buhari took office on a pledge to tackle corruption in Africa’s top economy,
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission said officials at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s regional branches and employees at eight major banks had colluded in “a mega scam involving the theft and recirculation of defaced and mutilated currencies.”
The suspects, who are due to start appearing in court on Tuesday, “literally allowed greed and craze for materialism to becloud their sense of judgment and responsibility,” the commission wrote on its website on Monday.
“This was an isolated scheme,” central bank spokesman Ibrahim Mu’azu wrote. “The bank will continue to collaborate with the EFCC to ensure that affected CBN staff, as well as their accomplices in some commercial banks, are brought to justice.”
The case comes at the outset of Mr. Buhari’s tenure, which began Friday at an exuberant inauguration ceremony where African presidents and diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, listened to the 72-year-old erstwhile military ruler declare war on corruption.