9th August, 2010
Members of a three-man gang of fake bankers who have been operating illegal wonder banks to defraud members of the public of their hard earned money in Kaduna State, Nigeria, have been arrested by the police at the Special Fraud Unit, Milverton Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, South West Nigeria.
The suspects, Adams Chom, Charles Johnson and Femi Afolayan, who police investigation revealed, operate under various company names such as Walok Investment Limited, Access Progressive Concept Limited and Jupiter Mortgage Finance Limited, devised criminal strategies to lure unsuspecting members of the public and prospective investors into making deposits with their companies with promise of giving the depositors between 110 per cemt and 120 per cent interest on their investment within 21 days.
The minimum deposit set for the investors is usually N5,000 only.
Following a petition by victims who lost huge sums of money to the fraudsters, detectives at the Special Fraud Unit swung into action and arrested the suspects at their hideout in the Kaduna metropolis.
During interrogation, the suspects confessed to the crime, while one of them, Charles Johnson, said that he recruited other principal staff of the company and having successfully conducted widely publicised seminars on-line, forex trading, crude oil and other related businesses, over 200 persons made cash deposits of about N30 million, while all the deposit slips used in obtaining the money from the victims have been destroyed.
Afolayan Femi, an employee of Jupiter Mortgage Finance Limited, said what they do is promise their victims of 120 per cent interest to be paid every 15 days and the money collected from them is about N50 million, which was shared it with one Abubakar, a director in the company.
The suspects are currently being detained and will face prosecution soon.
—Paul Iyoghjie