Abuja: Mr Suleiman Ciroma, a witness for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Thursday told the Federal High Court in Abuja how a sum of $ 12 million was swapped in SunTrust Bank within 10 days.
Ciroma stated this while being led in evidence by EFCC’s lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho, SAN, before Justice Emeka Nwite, in the ongoing trial of Halima Buba, the Managing Director/CEO of the bank.
Buba and her co-defendant, Innocent Mbagwu, the Executive Director/Chief Compliance Officer of SunTrust Bank, are being prosecuted for money laundering offences totalling $12 million.
The duo, in a six-count charge, was alleged to have aided high-value cash transactions without routing them through a financial institution.
The offence is said to be contrary to Section 21(a), 2(1), and 9(1)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and punishable under Section 19(2)(b) of the same Act.
The anti-graft agency arraigned the defendants on June 13.
They, however, pleaded not guilty to the counts and admitted to a N100 million bail with one surety each, in the like sum.
Upon resuming the hearing on Thursday, Ciroma, the 1st prosecution witness (PW-1), told the court that he is a businessman and had previously worked as a Bureau De Change (BDC) operator.
“I have a travel agency,” he said.
The witness, who identified Buba, stated that although he had never met Mbagwu one-on-one before, he said they had spoken on the phone.
The PW-1 tendered in evidence a bundle of documents to support his testimony before the court.
He narrated how the defendants facilitated the release of the $12 million at branches of the bank in Abuja and Lagos State, within 10 days.
He said the transactions commenced on March 10, after he received a call from Aisha Achimugu, an oil magnate, who informed him that she had some foreign exchange transactions to carry out with the bank.
The witness told the court that he immediately called Buba, who confirmed that she was aware of the proposed transactions.
The PW-1 told the court that later on the same day, a man named, Iliya called to notify him that he was at a branch of the bank in Abuja for payment of $1 million in cash as a swap to be paid to Achimugu through the account of a company, Oceangate Energy Oil & Gas, domiciled in Zenith Bank.
“I then contacted my friend, Hassan Dantani of Ashrap Ltd, who sent Tijjani Adamu for the collection of the cash payment,” he said.
He told the court that on the same day, Abdulkadir Mohammed collected another $1 million cash payment from a branch of the bank in Abuja. In comparison, another $2 million was also received by a man he identified as Kabiru.
Ciroma disclosed that the defendants helped swap the $12 million in cash payments into the account of Achimugu’s company in tranches between March 10 and March 20.
“In all the transactions, I made a profit of N15 million,” he told the court.
Asked if he knew the reason behind the alleged illicit transactions, the PW-1 said: “Aisha Achimugu told me that she wanted to buy an oil block and would need dollar inflow into the Oceangate Energy Oil & Gas account.”
He told the court that while Buba facilitated the transactions that took place in Abuja, Mbagwu handled the ones that occurred in Lagos.
Ciroma, through his lawyer, tendered some exhibits, including a printout of WhatsApp conversations he had with Buba regarding the transactions, as well as a certificate of identification that he had signed.
Buba’s counsel, Johnson Usman, SAN, and Mbagwu’s lawyer, Mr. M. S. Ibrahim, SAN, although opposed to tendering the evidence as exhibits, reserved their reasons until the final address stage.
Justice Nwite then admitted and marked the evidence as Exhibit P1.