60-year-old man arrested for N37.5m scam

A 60-year-old man, Vincent Odionu was on Monday September 29, 2014, arraigned before  Justice M.A. Onyetenu of the Federal High Court, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on a 2-count charge that borders on stealing, forgery and impersonation

The accused person who is an agent to a brokerage firm, Lion Stockbrokers Limited, allegedly conspired with others to sell the shares of Onwubu Gibson Anake  ( deceased) in several blue chip companies ( RT Briscoe, CFAO, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria,  First Bank, Oando,  Nigerian Breweries, etc) without authorisation. The total value of the shares sold by the accused is put at Thirty Seven Million, Five Hundred and Fifty Five Thousand Naira only.
One of the counts in the charge  reads,” That you Vincent Odionu sometime in March 2008 in Abakaliki, Ebony State within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria with intent to defraud obtained the sum of N1,268,000,00 (One Million Two Hundred and Sixty Eight Thousand Naira only) by means of fraudulent encashment of GTBank Cheque belonging to Onwubu Gibson Anake issued by lion Stockbrokers Limited when you falsely represented yourself at Fidelity Bank as Onwubu Gibson Anake, which pretence you knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 1 (1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under section 1 (3) of the same Act”.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The matter was adjourned to October 22, 2014 for consideration of bail application.