Newsfront Online …Telling the Public as it is
…EX-CBN gov may face multiple money laundering charges, anti-graft agency probes corporate organisations, individuals
…Commission says investigation independent of Obazee’s report
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has written to over 85 entities comprising corporate organisations and individuals over an ongoing investigation into alleged fraudulent foreign exchange allocations under the embattled former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.
It was gathered that Emefiele might face an amended charge to include new discoveries in the ongoing probe of forex transactions under his probe. The anti-graft agency has also summoned senior officials of the affected entities and mandated them to provide detailed documents of their foreign exchange transactions covering the last nine years.
Though Sunday PUNCH could not independently verify the details of the 85 other companies affected by the ongoing investigation, however, the Dangote Group and BUA Plc top the list as gathered by our correspondent on Saturday.
A top EFCC source revealed that the commission’s investigation was comprehensive, deeper, and encompassing, and independent of the report of the special investigator appointed by President Bola Tinubu to probe the CBN, Jim Obazee. The source disclosed exclusively to Sunday PUNCH that Emefiele would face fresh charges by the EFCC over the ongoing foreign exchange probe.
Saturday PUNCH reported that the EFCC operatives carted away some documents during the search on Thursday, but the documents did not cover all the transactions, hence the decision to summon the officials of the firms to bring the documents to Abuja on Tuesday.
But a highly placed EFCC official said senior executives of the company had been mandated to supply the commission with what he called “detailed and unambiguous documents on the demands by the commission.”
It was gathered that the officials were being expected at the agency’s office on Tuesday. “Yes, they (Dangote officials) asked for time to enable them to get all the necessary documents, which was granted. The idea is not to be seen to be witch-hunting anyone. What the commission wants is to get evidence and details of how government funds were allocated and that is all,” the EFCC official, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media on the development, said.
Dangote said in an advertorial that on December 6, 2023, the EFCC requested the details of all forex transactions allocated to the company by the CBN from 2014 and it responded by acknowledging receipt of the letter while seeking clarification on the subsidiaries or companies within the group that they required information on as well as additional time to compile and properly present the documents.
It added, “However, the EFCC did not provide the clarification sought and also did not honour our request for an extension and insisted on receiving the complete set of documents within the limited timeframe. Despite this constraint, we assured the EFCC of our commitment to providing the information and pledged to share documents in batches as we complete the compilation.
“On January 4, 2024, our team delivered the first batch of documents to the EFCC. However, officers of the EFCC did not accept the documents, insisting on visiting our offices to collect the same set of documents directly.”
The company added that while its representatives were still at the EFCC office to deliver the documents, a team of the anti-graft agency’s operatives visited its office to demand for the same documents in a manner that appeared to be designed to cause embarrassment to it.
“We must emphasise that, to our knowledge, no accusations of wrongdoing have been made against any company within our group. At present, we are only responding to a request for information to assist the EFCC with their ongoing investigation,” the company added.
Before the raid, Dangote Industries had in November 2023 refuted allegations that it was involved in forex malpractices and money laundering involving $3.4bn allegedly facilitated by Emefiele.
The company denied the claims that the money was channelled to its non-Nigerian subsidiaries, prompting illicit financial flows and round-tripping. Dangote noted that its investment undertakings were sourced from the interbank market, with all transactions supported by Letters of Credit in line with international standards.
During the raid, the operatives ransacked offices and carted away several financial documents related to forex allocations to the group from 2014 to June 2023, when Emefiele was suspended from office by President Bola Tinubu.
It was further gathered that the commission had asked the 51 firms under probe to submit Form A and Form M detailing the forex allocations to them between 2014 and June 2023.
