On Monday, two former employees of First Marina Trust Ltd. testified in a Federal High Court in Lagos about how they copied the emails of a number of customers and stole more than N1.3 billion from them.
Adeyemi Oluwaseun and Suleiman Yusuf’s trial has been resumed, and Mr. Anthony Onyeoghane, a witness for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the prosecutor in the case, testified.
The EFCC brought four counts of conspiracy to conduct identity theft, impersonation, and cybercrime against them.
They entered a not-guilty plea when they were first charged in June 2018 before Justice Chuka Obiozor.
They were given bail by the court.
Justice Tijani Ringim was given a new case after Obiozor was moved from the Federal High Court’s Lagos Division.
The defendants were re-arrested before Ringim on May 12 after the matter was reassigned.
They once more denied the accusation, and Ringim continued them on their earlier bail.
The prosecution’s attorney, Mr. Nnaemeka Omenwa, called the witness for the main examination when the trial started on Monday.
The witness said in court that he was employed by First Marina Trust Ltd., a financial institution governed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, as the Chief Risk Officer.
He named the accused as his former coworkers who held the positions of relationship manager and marketing operator, respectively.
The witness testified in court that starting on May 3, 2016, he served as the chairman of a committee formed to look into an instance of internal fraud committed by the defendants within the corporation.
He testified before the court that the defendants worked together to fraudulently construct consumer email addresses.
He claims that the defendants planned to have Chinedu Ohamuo, a client, have his email address changed from chimexohanuo@yahoo.com.
According to the witness, the defendants changed to chimexohamuo1@yahoo.com.
According to him, the second defendant, posing as a client of the business, sent an email to himself at his official email address instructing him to liquidate N15 million from the client’s investment account after changing the email.
He said that the second defendant also gave the order to transfer the money to his childhood friend Olufemi Ajala.
The second defendant, according to the witness, printed out the email address in accordance with business procedure, wrote “email received” on it, and then dated and signed it with his signature.
“He then took the said email to the first defendant who, upon verification, uploaded the request to the electronic payment system known as GAPS.
“The sum of N15 million was, therefore, transferred from the unsuspecting customer’s account to Olufemi Ajala. They used the same tactics in 19 other transactions.
“The defendants transfered from unsuspecting customers’ investment accounts, the sum of over N1.3 billion.
The witness testified that the only difference between the 19 other transactions and the one to Olufemi Ajala was that Olufemi Ajala was removed from the “equation” and replaced with a bureau de change.
“On May 16, 2016, a customer known as White App Resources Ltd., also saw his investment account defrauded by the defendants to the tune of N186.2 million, using computer system.
“On May 17, 2016, the same cyber fraud was committed by the defendants on the same customer, and the sum of N237.2 million was stolen. On May 27, 2016, the sum of N500.2 million was also stolen,” he said.
The witness testified before the court that the same scam occurred on June 9, 2016, June 22, 2016, and September 8, 2016, during which time different amounts of money were transferred.
The first defendant, he claimed, confessed to the investigation committee, and he gave the accounts of the bureau de change where the funds were transferred, according to what he said to the court.
The second defendant confessed to the crime and promised to spend his “last blood” to ensure that the money was returned in an email sent to the company’s managing director on September 19, 2016, according to the witness, who was at large at the time.
The witness testified in court that a handwritten letter or email requesting the same was the proper method for closing down a company’s account.
“The said letter or email is sent to the relationship manager of that particular customer, who is to confirm the letter or email by calling the customer to verify,” he said.
The witness claims that after confirmation, the officer is to write “email or letter confirmed,” sign, and then provide the document to the treasury operation staff, who confirms it again before putting it into the electronic payment system.
The trial has been continued and the case has been postponed until February 14, 2023.
The EFCC claims that the defendants changed the email addresses of unwary consumers of the business in order to acquire large sums of money from them.
According to the EFCC, the offenses violate Sections 13, 22(4), 27(a), and 27(2) of the 2015 Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention) Act.
