A manager with First Bank of Nigeria is reportedly on the run after allegedly diverting about ₦40 billion (approximately $29 million) over two years.
Tijani Muiz Adeyinka was a manager on the electronic products team at the bank’s head office in Iganmu, Lagos and he reportedly used his position to misappropriate funds by processing customer reversal requests to a merchant account under his control.
The scheme went undetected due to his authority to finalize transactions without additional approvals.
The fraud came to light when a customer complaint led to an internal review by the bank’s control unit, which uncovered numerous suspicious transactions.
The discovery prompted First Bank to alert the police and pursue legal measures to mitigate the financial damage.
Meanwhile, First Bank has been proactive in its response, securing three court orders between 4 April and 8 April 2024, to freeze hundreds of accounts suspected of receiving the diverted funds.
The affected accounts include 98 classified as first beneficiaries, one of which belongs to Adeyinka’s wife, and numerous second-tier accounts.
Court documents reveal that Adeyinka’s fraudulent activities involved transferring funds to his wife’s account at Zenith Bank, which subsequently dispersed the money across 34 additional accounts.
The accounts further funnelled the funds to 1,190 other accounts, creating a complex web of transactions designed to obfuscate the origin of the stolen money.
“We are working closely with law enforcement agencies to unravel the circumstances surrounding this fraud and apprehend all culprits involved,” a statement from the bank to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police dated 10 May 2024 read.
First Bank of Nigeria has now initiated legal proceedings to recover the said sums of money.
The bank was said to have reported the incident to the Nigerian Police Force on 25 March 2024 and subsequently obtained multiple court orders to freeze accounts linked to the stolen funds.
Eighteen-Eleven Media