Fraudulent petitions threaten financial, govt institutions — Report

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit has said it discovered a surge in fraudulent petitions related to the alleged transfer of funds from foreign banks to Nigerian banks.

The organisation noted that these deceptive practices are increasingly targeting victims and posing a persistent threat to financial institutions, law enforcement agencies, and other government entities.

In its report dated June 19, 2024, the NFIU said the complexity and frequency of these schemes underscore the urgent need for enhanced security measures and coordinated responses from all affected sectors to mitigate the risks and protect stakeholders.

It partly read, “Our findings suggest that deceptive fraudulent petitions involving the tracing and recovery of funds allegedly transferred from foreign banks to Nigerian banks are becoming a recurrent threat to not only the targeted victim(s) but also Financial Institutions, Law Enforcement Agencies and other government agencies.

“Financial institutions and the general public are advised to be vigilant and adopt recommendations that will help to further safeguard important documents from being easily accessible to prevent their use as a backup for such petitions.

“The public should exercise some level of skepticism when dealing with telegraphic transfer documents from major European banks as nearly all frivolous claims emanate from the same jurisdictions and banks abroad.

“Relevant LEAs should also take steps to effectively address the problem of fraudulent telex copies by ensuring the prompt prosecution and sanctioning of offenders to serve as a deterrence.”

Specifically stating the effect of fraudulent petitions on banks, the organisation said false allegations engineered by misrepresentation of material facts could result in loss of confidence by the banking public who may have reasons to believe that the banks actually held funds in its server.

The organisation recommended that “Upon receipt of a letter from a customer anticipating a huge inflow, evidenced by the usual Telex copy, the financial institution should immediately conduct Enhanced Due Diligence, sufficient to establish the authenticity or otherwise of the document presented.

“Where issues of forgery are suspected, the Financial Institution must take steps to quickly respond in writing to the letter from the customer, clearly stating the non-existence of such pending transaction of funds. This action must be taken immediately upon receipt of the complaint by the bank to avoid their use of the acknowledgment of the letters for fraudulent purposes.”

Listing such fraudulent petitions received, the agency said a law firm once submitted a petition on behalf of its client, an NGO, requesting the NFIU and other relevant agencies to trace and recover the sum of €30,000,000,000.00 only, transferred from a foreign bank to a bank in Nigeria, claiming the funds had been blocked by a financial institution in Nigeria.

“The purpose of the funds according to the petition is for investment in the real estate sector. NFIU said a law firm once forwarded a petition on behalf of its client seeking to trace and recover the sum of €6,000,000,000.00 (Six Billion Euros) only transferred from foreign banks to the client’s Nigerian bank account,“ the report added.

The NFIU, however, urged the Nigerian Bar Association to enlighten its members to verify documents received from clients before acting on them.

“There is a need for the Nigerian Bar Association to sensitize its members on the importance of verifying and authenticating documents received from clients before taking action.

“In order to curtail the activities of persons who engage in fraudulent wire transfers, Law firms need to always conduct Due Diligence on their clients, including documents received while acting as legal attorneys or representatives.”