Court Jails Maina, ex-pension boss for fraud

Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), has been convicted of money laundering by Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court in Abuja.

The former pension boss was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2019, but pleaded not guilty to a 12-count charge of N2 billion money laundering brought against him.

The trial judge ruled that Maina stole over N2 billion in pension funds in his ruling.

Maina is guilty, according to the judge, of concealing his true identity as a signatory to accounts opened in two banks, UBA and Fidelity Bank, by using the identities of his family members without their knowledge.

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The cash deposits in the accounts were N300 million, N500 million, and N1.5 billion.

He claimed that throughout Maina’s civil service, his salary and emoluments could not have equaled the funds in theose accounts.

The court also found Maina guilty of paying cash for a property in Abuja worth $1.4 million, exceeding the statutory threshold of N5 million and without going through a financial institution.
He was found guilty on all 12 counts and sentenced to eight years in prison by the court.

Although the law provided for a maximum sentence of 14 years, the judge was moved by Maina’s allocutus plea, which is a plea made to the court by a defendant who has been found guilty but has not yet been sentenced.

The judge ruled that the sentence would be served concurrently, beginning on October 25, 2019, the date of arraignment.

The court ordered Maina and his company, Common Input Property and Investment Limited, to forfeit approximately N2.1 billion traced to their bank accounts to the federal government, after which the company was ordered to be wound up.

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In addition, the court ordered that Maina’s properties in Abuja’s Life Camp and Jabi Districts be forfeited to the government.

The convict’s bulletproof car and a BMW 5 series vehicle discovered at the convict’s residence would also be auctioned, with the proceeds forfeited to the government.

Remember that last month, Justice Abang sentenced Faisal, Maina’s son who is still at large, to seven years in prison on a three-count money laundering charge.