Investigation into $15 billion Petro Union fraud resumes in Lagos

The ongoing high-level criminal trial in the alleged Petro Union fraud case is set to resume on November 15 at a Lagos Federal High Court. According to the court’s hearing notice, the trial court will hear the case exclusively over two days in the first instance.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed the case in March 2020 against Petro Union Oil and Gas Limited (Petro Union), its financial consultant, and four of its directors – Abayomi Kukoyi (trading as Gladstone Kukoyi & Associates), Prince Kingsley Okpala, Prince ChidiOkpalaeze, and Prince Emmanuel Okpalaeze. The defendants and the firm are facing a thirteen-count charge on various criminal counts ranging from conspiracy to obtaining by false pretenses, forgery, and fraud brought by the anti-graft agency on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

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Previous hearings have revealed what appears to be a brazen attempt by the accused to use Nigeria’s justice system to sustain and validate corrupt practices. Key prosecution witnesses testified about how the company and its directors allegedly plotted and conspired to defraud the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So far, eight witnesses have testified before the court, including a former finance minister, a senior CBN officer, and an ex-Union Bank UK employee.

The Ministry concluded that what was needed was for the Ministry to remind the Petro Union that the CBN does not require the mandate of the Minister of Finance before such foreign capital could be imported into Nigeria because it was not public funds. She concluded her testimony by stating that the Ministry was unable to confirm the existence of the funds mentioned in Petro Union’s letter.

Mr. Olugbemileke Akinyemi Akinwunmi, another key witness who works for the Central Bank of Nigeria in Abuja as a Principal Manager in charge of domiciliary accounts and the management of inflows into the Revenue Account, told the Court that he was tasked with compiling a series of records relating to correspondence between the CBN and Petro Union.

When explaining international transfers, he stated that all outflows from the CBN go through a platform called SWIFT, and that all processes must pass through this platform in order for payments to be processed, and that there must be a Correspondence Bank for the inflow in order for payments to be processed. He also explained to the Court that the CBN serves two types of clients: Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) on the one hand, and Banks and other financial institutions on the other. He stated unequivocally that, aside from these two types of customers, the CBN does not keep individual accounts and is not involved in the receipt of funds into Nigeria for private transactions.

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He claimed to have seen a copy of a statement purportedly presented by Petro Union as the account statement of a company called Goldmatic Limited. He confirmed that no company with that name exists in CBN’s records after reviewing the statement. The company is clearly a limited liability company based on the name, and CBN does not keep accounts for such entities.

Mr. Walter Mbah, now retired, worked for Union Bank from October 1971 to March 2009, and had the opportunity to work at the Union Bank London Branch between 2000 and 2001. He told the Court that in 2001, Union Bank’s London branch received a request from the bank’s head office in Lagos to confirm a cheque for GBP2,556,000,000. As is customary, the London Branch requested confirmation of the cheque from Barclays Bank. Barclays Bank responded by letter, stating that the account on which the cheque was drawn had been closed since 1989.

Mbah testified that, while Union Bank was unable to locate a copy of the letter sent to Barclays Bank, the bank still had a copy of the response. The response from Barclays Bank was tendered and admitted into evidence by the Court.

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When the criminal trial resumes on Monday, November 15, 2021, it is expected that the prosecution will have completed its case and the defense will have begun its case either immediately or at the next adjourned date.