How Saraki Used Credit Card To Launder Funds From Banks And Kwara State – Police Investigation

Reports coming in by a team of detectives at the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigerian police headed by a Commissioner of Police has disclosed how Senate President, Bukola Saraki made series of questionable deposits and illegal withdrawals from banks in order to launder stolen funds through shell companies and an American Express credit card.
According to the details entailed in the Special Fraud Unit’s investigation, Saraki’s fraudulent scheme, was to withdraw millions of naira disguised as loans from GTBank, Intercontinental Bank, Zenith Bank Plc. The funds were then moved into separate accounts, sometimes under the guise of paying off some bank debts with other “loans.”
The investigation further revealed that Saraki at various times withdrew 11 billion naira from the Intercontinental Bank, 160 million naira from Zenith Bank, and 204 million naira from GTBank. According to the report: “the investigation also saw evidence of a 200 million naira loan facility that was availed by Zenith Bank to Joy Petroleum Ltd.”
When pressured, the bank provided two incriminating documents including “(1) an internal [bank] ledger statement of account in the name of Dr. Bukola Saraki showing a debit withdrawal of 160 million on 26/11/2009 and a credit deposit of 11,901369.98 on 26/05/2010. (2) A page of the bank’s Manager’s Cheque register showing that a draft of 160 million [naira] in favor of Joy Petroleum Ltd was signed for by one Uche Phillips.”
The Special Fraud Unit extended its investigation into companies belonging to Bukola Saraki, and discovered “evidence indicative of money laundering.” The investigation realised that “a series of cash lodgments were found in accounts of the companies solely belonging to Dr. Bukola Saraki within the period he was the Executive Governor of Kwara State. The investigation observes that the monies were deposited in cash by personal aides of Dr. Bukola Saraki, especially one Abdul Adama.”
The police investigators also found, according to the report, that “a series of cash lodgments was found in the personal accounts of Dr. Bukola Saraki during the period he was Executive Governor of Kwara State.” Moreover, the report concluded that the “pattern and frequencies of cash deposits into these personal accounts of Dr. Bukola Saraki, are indicative of money laundering.”
The police report also asserted: “the [stolen] funds were mostly washed overseas to fund Dr. Bukola Saraki’s American Express Card No. 374588216836009.” The investigators concluded that Mr. Saraki’s personal account “also received an inflow of about $4,560,871.27 between May 18th 2009 and May 5th 2011, mostly cash lodgments and a couple NIFT Transfers.”
The police investigators accused Mr. Saraki of using proceeds of corruption to purchase properties abroad. In particular, the report revealed that Senator Saraki bought several houses in the UK both in his name as well as that of his wife.
One of our sources in the Ministry of Justice stated that Nigeria’s immediate past Attorney General, Bello Adoke, obstructed the prosecution of the current Senate President. According to a source in the ministry: “Both the police investigators and some lawyers in the Ministry [of Justice] recommended that Governor Bukola Saraki should face prosecution. However, the (immediate past Attorney General, Bello Adoke) AGF refused to give permission to prosecute Saraki based on the weighty evidence provided by the Special Fraud Unit.”
Instead of proceeding with the prosecution of Mr. Saraki, the Ministry of Justice instructed the Special Fraud Unit to focus more of their attention on the role of Zenith Bank in the shady financial transactions.