Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja, on Monday, March 23, 202,6 convicted and sentenced a former acting Accountant General of the Federation, Chukwunyere Anamekwe Nwabuoku, to 72 years imprisonment for money laundering to the tune of N868, 465,000 (Eight Hundred and Sixty-eight Million, Four Hundred and Sixty-five Thousand Naira).
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, prosecuted the former AGF on nine-count charges bordering on money laundering.
Count one of the charges reads: That you CHUKWUNYERE ANAMEKWE NNABUOKU, TEMEEO SYNERGY CONCEPT LIMITED(at large), TURGE GLOBAL INVESTMENT LIMITED(at large), LAPTEV BRIDGE LIMITED(at large), ARAFURA TRANSNATIONAL AFRO LIMITED(at large) and other persons (at large) between September, 2019 and October, 2020 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court conspired to convert funds which are proceeds of unlawful activities and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 as (amended by Act No. 1 of 2012) and punishable under section 15(2) (b) and (3) of the same Act.
Count two reads: That you CHUKWUNYERE ANAMEKWE NNABUOKU, and TEMEEO SYNERGY CONCEPT LIMITED (at large), between September, 2019 and October, 2020 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court indirectly converted the sum of N262, 602,897.27 (Two Hundred and Sixty Two Million, Six Hundred and Two Thousand, Eight Hundred and Ninety Seven Naira Twenty Seven Kobo) paid into the Zenith Bank Plc account of TEMEEO SYNERGY CONCEPT LIMITED (at large) with Number 1016901286 knowing that the funds constituted proceed of unlawful activity and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 15(2) (b) and punishable under section 15(3) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended by Act No. 1 of 2012).
Count three reads: That you CHUKWUNYERE ANAMEKWE NNABUOKU, and TURGE GLOBAL INVESTMENT LIMITED (at large), between September, 2019 and October, 2020 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court indirectly converted the sum of N202, 824,009.97 (Two Hundred and Two Million Eight Hundred and Twenty Four Thousand, Nine Naira, Ninety Seven Kobo) paid into the Zenith Bank Plc account of TURGE GLOBAL INVESTMENT LIMITED with Number 1016901279 knowing that the funds constituted proceed of unlawful activity and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 15(2) (b) and punishable under section 15(3) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended by Act No. 1 of 2012).
Count four reads: That you CHUKWUNYERE ANAMEKWE NNABUOKU, and LAPTEV BRIDGE LIMITED (at large), between September 2019 and October, 2020 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court indirectly converted the sum of N281, 106,469.41 (Two Hundred and Eighty One Million, One Hundred and Six Thousand, Four Hundred and Sixty Nine Naira, Forty One Kobo) paid into the Zenith Bank Plc account of LAPTEV BRIDGE LIMITED with Number 1016727695 knowing that the funds constituted proceed of unlawful activity and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 15(2) (b) and punishable under section 15(3) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended by Act No. 1 of 2012).
While delivering judgment on Monday, Justice Omotosho held that the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, stressing that concrete evidence was presented to buttress the charges brought against the convict.
According to the judge, funds meant for the operation of the Ministry of Defence were converted to personal use. He also stressed that the corporate accounts opened to receive proceeds of unlawful activities did not bear the name of the convict because the former acting AGF tried to shield himself to avoid criminal prosecution.
The evidence is clear that funds meant for the Ministry of Defence were converted to personal use when they were transferred into corporate accounts for the benefit of the defendant. The defendant, being a civil servant at the material time, claimed he had so many investments; however, the evidence before the court did not provide evidence of any business he was doing to explain which amount of money he controlled.”
“He was unable to explain how he purchased a property of N64m and how he got his shares worth N200m. It must also be noted that PW9 stated that the defendant refunded the sum of N220m to EF the CC recovery Account, which was not challenged by the defendant. The implication of this is that the defendant admitted the crime of money laundering. If he did not have a guilty mind, then he would not have refunded the money, I hereby convict the defendant on counts 2 to 5 of the charge,” he said.
With respect to count one, he held that the defendant must have conspired, as conspiracy is based on sole interest and purpose to commit a substantive offense as evidence of PW, PW2 showed that the defendant was the mastermind of the opening and operations of the corporate accounts in the name of Coiglobal, Nabyec, Arafura and Kemo which the defendant used to receive proceeds of unlawful activities.
“In respect of count 6, where the defendant was accused of concealing the aggregate sum of N355m paid into th account of Mdavies Ltd on his behalf and which the prosecution have led evidence through Pw3, there was no explanation of what the money was meant for, there was no business transaction involving the defendant and PW3 or Mdavies to warrant such huge transactions. Consequently, the court can only conclude that the defendant is guilty of concealing the origin of N355m by facilitating the payment of the money into Mdavies account. Consequently, the defendant is hereby convicted on count 6 of the charge”, the judge said.
The judge also gave vivid accounts of the culpability of the convict in the remaining counts 7, 8 & 9 . Justice Omotosho also noted that, before 2019, the defendant’s account balance was N3m and from August 2019, he started receiving tons of millions on the same account. “The timeline is quite curious as it coincides with the timeline of the said offences”, he said. #Securitynewsalert.com
