Bank fraud syndicate smashed

[Richard Akindele]

Four people, including two Nigerians and two Indians, are telling International Police (INTERPOL) Nigeria, all they know about a recent fraud involving an Indian Bank.

The Fraud, which was allegedly perpetrated by the four persons, all based in Port Harcourt, the River State Capital, saw the suspects illegally transferring the savings of Mr Ramchandra J. Prabbu, an executive of Oilfield Service Company, Port Harcourt, from his fixed deposit account with the Panjim branch of HDFC, India, based on fraudulent instructions issued by them to the bank.
A source at the office of INTERPOL Nigeria, Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos, told THISDAY last weekend that the fraud was perfected in Nigeria by the two Indian nationals and their Nigerian counterparts and sealed in India, to make it possible for them to transfer the victims savings to a bank in Japan, from where they consequently withdrew the money.


The source said Prabbu has already informed the Indian Ambassador to Nigeria of his ordeal, adding that it was discovered in the course of investigation that the fraudsters, including some other Nigerians and Indians resident in Nigeria, have been operating such fraudulent rackets in the country for sometime now. They are said to connive with fraudulent bank staff to perpetuate their crime.
The victim was said to have reported the matter at the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Rivers State Police Command, Port Harcourt, upon his discovery of the fraud.


The police, who immediately went into action, arrested three of the suspects, but later granted them bail, an act that made an unsatisfied Prabbu to cause the matter to be transferred to the D' Department, Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID), Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and consequently the INTERPOL.
A break through was said to have been recorded in the matter when a Nigerian GSM telephone number with which dubious staff of the Indian bank, who connived with the fraudsters, was detected, identified and traced to one of the suspects.


"Operatives of INTERPOL Nigeria will soon leave for India, to continue with investigations into the matter, having been confirmed that a member of the Indian bank's staff passed vital banking information on the victim to members of the syndicate, operating from within and outside Nigeria," the source added, stating that the first transfer from the account was made on July 25,2005 and the second on August 19, 2005.
The matter was transferred to INTERPOL, given its international nature.
Added to that, a copy of the case file is said to have been sent to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), who is disposed to prosecuting all those arrested in connection with it any time from now.

Source: ThisDay

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