Investigation Reveals Emefiele Lodged £543,482,213 in UK Banks and Operates 593 Illegal Foreign Bank Accounts

Since the suspension of the previous CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele,  he has been probed over some illegalities concerning money laundering. Still, the recent investigation report shows that Emefiele has illegally lodged billions of naira in 593 foreign bank accounts as of this report. 

The bank account can be found in the United States, United Kingdom, and China. It is said that these accounts operate without the authorization of the apex bank's board of directors and the CBN Investment Committee.

Jim Obaze, the Special Investigator on the CBN and Related Entities, conducted the investigation. He revealed that without authorization, the former CBN governor lodged £543,482,213 in fixed deposits in UK banks alone.

However, on Wednesday, Obaze submitted the final report titled ‘Report of the Special Investigation on CBN and Related Entities (Chargeable offenses)’ to President Bola Tinubu.

The report  partly read, 

• The former governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, invested Nigeria’s money without authorization in 593 foreign bank accounts in the United States, China, and the United Kingdom while he was in charge.

• All the accounts where the billions were lodged have all been traced by the investigator.

On July 28, 2023, it was reported that President Bola Tinubu named Obazee, a former Executive Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, as the CBN special investigator.

After Emefiele's suspension as CBN Governor, he was placed on trial at the Custodial Centre for N1.2 billion in procurement fraud in June. He was granted bail for N300 million by the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory on November 22, which he still needs to fulfill.

The documents obtained by the PUNCH show that the former CBN governor might still face fresh criminal charges over his management of the CBN naira redesign policy.

He could also face trial for illegally issuing currency under Section 19 of the CBN Act alongside Tunde Sabiu, a former aide to former President Muhammadu Buhari, and 12 top directors of the CBN.

It was gathered that the naira redesign policy was sold to Buhari at the instance of Sabiu and that the initiative was done without the approval of the board of the CBN, the PUNCH reports.

Naira Redesign 

It was discovered by the investigator that Buhari didn't approve the redesign and that it was Tunde Sabi who first told Emefiele in September 2022 to consider the redesign of the naira. 

Then, Emefiele wrote to Buhari on October 6, 2022, that he wanted to redesign and reconfigure N1000, N500, and N200 notes.

The document partly reads, 

• The former President tagged along but did not approve the redesign as required by law. Buhari merely approved that the currency be printed in Nigeria. The redesign was only mentioned to the board of the CBN on December 15, 2022, after Emefiele had awarded the contract to Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc on October 31, 2022.

Emefiele was said to have contracted the redesign of the naira to De La Rue of the UK for £205 000 pounds under the vote of the head of the Currency Operations Department after the NSPM said it could not deliver the contract within a short timeframe.

The investigator also found that N61.5 billion was earmarked for printing the new notes out of the N31.79 billion paid. 

As of August 9, 2023, findings revealed that N769bn of the new notes were circulating.

The CBN probe also revealed the fraudulent use of N26.627tn  Ways and Means of the Apex Bank and the misuse of the COVID-19 intervention fund.

Further Investigation 

The CBN investigator discovered that the CBN Ways and Means were abused under the Buhari administration.

The document further said, 

• In one instance, they (senior CBN and government officials) padded what former President Muhammadu Buhari approved with N198,963,162,187. There are instances where no approvals are received from the former president, yet N500 billion is taken and debited to Ways and Means.

• There are more shocking instances where the erstwhile CBN governor and his four deputy governors connived to steal outright to balance the books of the CBN.

• This was done by violently taking money from the Consolidated Revenue account and charging it to Ways and Means. It was a total of N124.860 bn. They even created the narration as a presidential subsidy and expanded the ways and Means portfolio to accommodate crime.

• The CBN officers and even the then-acting CBN governor could not produce the Presidential Approval of most expenses described as ‘Ways and Means.’ When confronted with providing the breakdown of the supposed N22.7 trn that was presented to the 9th National Assembly to securitize as ‘Ways and Means’ financing illegally, they were only able to partially explain a total of N9.063 trn or N9.2 trn depending on which official you are considering his submission and an unreasonable attribution of non-negotiated interest element of N6.5 tn.

• This shows that this was the point where the officers of the immediate past administration, the erstwhile CBN governor and his four deputy governors, connived, defrauded, and stole from the commonwealth of our country with the aid of civil servants.’

• The current position of the Ways and Means, as documented by the reconciliation between the CBN and the Ministry of Finance, is N4,449,149,411,584.54.

• This may have been the main reason the past administration hurriedly sought that the advances of N22.7 trn be securitized by the 9th National Assembly on December 19, 2022, which they also hastily did even though it contravenes Section 38 of the CBN Act, 2007.

Legal Fees

It was said that Emefiele spent N1.7 billion on questionable legal fees for 19 cases instituted against the naira redesign policy.

The Investigator said Emefiele misrepresented the presidential approval for the NESI Stabilization Strategy Limited, approved by former president Goodluck Jonathan.

The document reads,

• The Presidential approval granted by then President Goodluck Jonathan rightly stated that NESI should be a company limited by guarantee. Still, the Committee of Governors misled the Board of the CBN by relying on non-existent advice from the office of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to incorporate a company limited by shares for which the allotted share capital exceeded the authorized share capital (See 380th meeting of the Committee of Governors held in January 2015) and allocating unauthorized share capital to Mr Godwin Emefiele and Mr Mudashiru Olaitan without lawful approval by the President.

• N1.325bn was stolen pre-incorporation, and the money was funneled to four companies, including a legal firm, which got N300mn.

Between 2015 and 2021, an investment company was said to have collected unlawfully a total of N4.89bn.

A breakdown indicated that the firm received N262mn in 2015, N464mn in 2016, N550mn in 2017, N726mn in 2018, N762 in 2019, N684 in 2020, and N1.44bn in 2021, totaling N4.89bn.

Emefiele also allegedly paid N17.2bn to 14 deposit money banks participating in the Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilization Facility.

It added, 

• A total of 14 DMBs engaged in the manipulation by unlawfully arranging and collecting 1.9535 percent of the total disbursements paid to the DMBs participating in the Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilization Facility.

• The CBN also went further by authorizing debenture issuance for the NESI SPV, starting with N64.8bn in 2015. By 2021, N952bn debenture had been issued. The investigator said the money was diverted from public funds.