Justice Habeeb Abiru of a Lagos High court sitting in Ikeja, on
Monday, fixed November 27 for the N850 million fraud trial of Keystone
Bank (formerly Bank PHB), three officials of the bank, an Indian and his
company, Nulec Industries Limited, who were arraigned on a two-count
charge of conspiracy and obtaining by false pretence by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The defendants are Anayo
Nwosu; Ashok Isran, an Indian who also has a Swiss citizenship and is
the chairman of Nulec Industries, which was also arraigned; Olajide
Oshodi; Sunny Obazee and Bank PHB itself.
The six defendants,
three of who work for Bank PHB, allegedly defrauded a Nigerian
identified as Sir Daniel Chukwudozie, of Dozzy Oil, of N850,000,000. The
three Bank PHB staff members are Nwosu, Oshodi and Obazee.
Sir
Daniel, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Dozzy Oil
and Gas Limited, alleged that he was defrauded of a total of
N1.075,000.000.
In his petition to the EFCC dated March 1, 2012
and signed on his behalf by P.I.N. Ikwueto, he stated that he was
hoodwinked into parting with the money, adding that he took the
decision to invest the money in Nulec Industries Limited following
assurances by officials of the bank that the shares of the company would
be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange one month after private
placement at a price not below N5 as against the private placement offer
price of N2.85k.
Sir Daniel further alleged that when he was
allegedly hoodwinked into investing in Nulec, no Memorandum of
Investment or any other information about the company was given to him.
“On
the strength of the assurances by the bank, our client invited and
persuaded his associates and close family members to also invest in the
private placement aforesaid,” the petition said.
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