Lotus Bank Limited has been rocked by an insider fraud scandal involving over N336 million. Abdulkarim Arome Mohammed, a staff member in the bank’s Financial Control Department, allegedly exploited his system privileges to defraud the bank of N336,993,863.35.
This revelation comes just two months after the bank reportedly lost N1.13 billion in a separate fraudulent scheme.
According to an affidavit submitted by the bank’s fraud investigation officer, Gbenga Ojerinde, and filed by Lagos-based lawyer Efe Eze-Iyamu, the fraud was uncovered during an investigation into suspicious Mudarabah profit payments to customer accounts. A review of transactions between January 2023 and May 2024 exposed Mohammed’s actions.
The affidavit detailed how Mohammed allocated profits to three accounts not entitled to such payments. One of these accounts belonged to his wife, Khadijah Aliyu Shuaib, who also worked in the Financial Control Department and was responsible for profit distribution. The other two accounts were linked to individuals named Peter Daniel and Emmanuel Ocheja Odogwu. The total amount involved in the fraudulent activities stood at N336,993,863.35.
Investigations revealed that funds from Peter Daniel’s account were transferred to accounts at two other banks. Meanwhile, the money from Khadijah Shuaib’s account was funneled primarily into Cresco Oil & Gas Limited, a company reportedly controlled by Mohammed, his wife, and Peter Daniel.
Following the discovery, Lotus Bank notified the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), which in turn instructed the relevant banks to freeze the fraudulent accounts and reverse the funds. While some banks have complied, others are yet to take action.
In response, Lotus Bank has sought a court order to impose post-no-debit restrictions on the implicated accounts to prevent further movement of the funds. The bank has also pledged to indemnify the financial institutions involved if the court rules that the restrictions were unnecessary.
Judge Chukwujekwu Aneke has since ordered 28 listed financial institutions to impose post-no-debit restrictions on the accounts tied to the beneficiaries of the fraudulent scheme, freezing the amounts they had received
