8 Billion SCAM: EFCC arrests CBN officials, 16 bankers for recycling N8bn

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said five top officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria and 16 others are to be arraigned for alleged complicity in a currency fraud running to N8bn.

The Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said in a statement on Sunday, said the suspects were to be arraigned for circulating defaced and mutilated notes at the Federal High Court, Ibadan, Oyo State, on June 2, 2015

Uwujaen said the16 other suspects to be arraigned alongside the CBN bigwigs were members of staff of various commercial banks in the country.

He said the suspects would be arraigned on five counts at the high court.

The EFCC spokesperson added that all the suspects now in custody connived to recycle the defaced and mutilated currencies they were asked to destroy by substituting the notes with newspaper cuttings in Naira note sizes.

Uwujaren stated that the operatives of the commission waded into the matter following a petition that the sum of N6.5bn was recycled by a syndicate involving top officials of the CBN in Ibadan, Oyo State.

He explained that the fraud was partly responsible for the failure of the monetary policy of the government as mop up exercises by the CBN failed to address the effect of inflation on the economy.

http://www.punchng.com/news/efcc-arrests-cbn-officials-16-bankers-for-recycling-n8bn/