Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have uncovered how Access Bank PLC lost a whopping sum of N3.5b within minutes through a coordinated fraud organized by its IT staff in Lagos State.
Track News Online reports that the Access Bank staff plugged an HP Elitebook laptop into his branch’s network, where he was working for about 16 years as an IT representative with the bank.
From there, he gave a remote access to his cohorts for them to perpetrate the fraud on the network of the bank. He employed other defendants and moved money out through them.
The three suspects behind the alleged coordinated fraud, Michael Igbomins, David Onyeike and Moses Iruolaja, have been arrested and charged before Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe of the Special Offences Court sitting Ikeja, Lagos.
The defendants were arraigned for conspiracy, stealing and retention of proceeds of crime under the Criminal law of the State.
The EFCC counsel, Mr. Abdulhamid Tukur, told Court that the defendants allegedly committed the offences sometimes in 2023, with dishonest intent, allegedly stole and converted to their own use the sum of N3, 473,166,731 billion, property of Access Bank.
The EFCC also alleged that the defendants retained the said amount of money, the proceed they knew to have been from an unlawful act.
The anti-graft commission alleged that their offences were contrary to the provision of Section 17 of the EFCC Establishment Act, 2004 and Section 280 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2015, which attracts several years of imprisonment.
However, they pleaded not guilty.
The prosecutor, Mr Tukur, asked the Court for a trial date since they pleaded not guilty to enable the prosecution to prove that they actually committed the alleged offence.
He urged the Court to remand the defendants in the correctional facility.
However, the defendants counsel, Mr. M. S. Amosun and Mr. I. O. Lala, informed the Court that there was no pending application before the Court but they prayed that they would do the needful before the next adjourned date.
The Presiding Judge, Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe, remanded the defendants in the Ikoyi Custodial Centre pending the hearing and determination of their bail application.
The matter was adjourned till 28th November, 2024, for trial.