A 47-year-old Nigerian man Amos Paul Gabriel, involved in a scheme to swindle Citibank in New York City has been jailed and fined by a Singapore court for money laundering and other offences. See LIB reports on the Agulu born, Anambra businessman.

Gabriel, a Singapore permanent resident, was sentenced to three years' jail and fined $4,200 last Thursday, May 16.  He had also pleaded guilty to driving without a licence, and was handed a one-year driving ban.

The money laundering case made headlines in 2009 when Amos was indicted in New York on charges of scheming to steal from a National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) account at Citibank.

Amos and his co-conspirators had in 2008 sent fake signed documents to Citibank appearing to match signatures of officials at NBE, Ethiopia's central bank.

Citibank transferred US$27.2 million (S$37.2 million) to various accounts before the fraud was discovered.

Details of the elaborate scheme to launder the stolen money were heard at Singapore's State Courts.

Amos, who was married to a Singaporean woman, received a call from his Nigerian friend Robert Umohette in 2008, asking him to provide a bank account for the transfer of the cheated proceeds.

Instead of using the account of his own company, Amos discussed the matter with a friend in Australia named Mohammad Sohail, also known as Malik.

They agreed to use the bank account of Malik's company to receive the funds, on the condition that Amos received a cut of the cheated funds as commission, said Deputy Public Prosecutors Kelvin Kow and Shamini Joseph.

A total of US$27.2 million was transferred via Citibank from the corporate account of NBE to accounts in the US, Australia, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Korea as part of the broader money-laundering scheme.

Of this, US$1.8 million was transferred to Malik's account. Amos then got Malik to transfer US$669,509 into a bank account in Singapore on Robert's instruction.
He later acted on another of Robert's instructions and asked Malik to transfer money to a bank account in Hong Kong. Malik transferred A$623,467 (S$591,000).

Amos then told Robert that he would collect his commission in cash as he did not want the stolen funds to be traced to him. He later travelled to Hong Kong to collect his commission of US$300,000.

The US$669,509 that was laundered into Singapore was seized from the relevant bank account by the Commercial Affairs Department, and returned to Citibank in 2010.

A further sum of about S$35,000 was recovered from Amos during investigations, and he paid another S$100,000 in restitution.

After initially claiming trial, Amos pleaded guilty on Thursday to various charges related to money laundering. He also admitted to traffic offences.

In October 2016, he had driven a blue Lamborghini dangerously on East Coast Parkway, overtaking a van at high speed. The father of the van driver made a police report.

Amos was later found without a valid driving licence in Singapore. He had a licence issued by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but had not converted it within three months of obtaining his Singapore PR status.

On the money laundering charges, the prosecution called for Amos to be punished appropriately.

"Your Honour knows how important it is to protect Singapore’s reputation as a clean and trusted financial centre," said the prosecutors. "We must stand strongly against the scourge of money-laundering. The accused must be punished appropriately, so as to deter others from trying to launder money in Singapore

Lists implications of rising unemployment, global crisis

Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele has raised the alarm that the country might  slide back to recession except urgent measures are taken to address the high rate of unemployment.

He said the country has made progress in the year under review but more efforts  were needed to reduce the staggering unemployment rate.

“From some of my concluding remarks, you may have observed whether you like it or not, there is global uncertainty that will unfortunately most certainly lead to another crisis.

“The question could be, how are we, as Nigerians, particularly our leaders, I’m talking of monetary and fiscal policy authority, preparing our country for the next set of crisis?

“We have luckily exited recession, we have seen recession pending downward to about 18.72 percent in 2017 to about 11. 37 percent today.

“We have seen reserves moving up but unfortunately, we still have issues and those issues bother around unemployment rate and those issues bother around how do we prepare our country,” he said.

He expressed his concerns when he delivered the Eminent Persons’ Lecture Series  with the theme: “Beyond the global financial crisis: Monetary policy under global uncertainty” at the University of Benin, yesterday.

The warning came exactly a week after he alerted Nigerians to expect tough and rough years.

“The road ahead is tough and rough. I want to appeal to our people to respect the policies of the country. We always put good policies in place, but implementation is a problem, he stated when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, as part of his reconfirmation hearing, blamed part of the country’s woes on disrespect for the rule of law.

Emefiele, who explained how the CBN led the country out of recession, however, warned that going forward, saboteurs and others who flout economic policies of the government will be prosecuted. He said despite the policies put in place by the Federal Government, implementation was always a challenge.

He also warned against the nation’s growing population and explained that if not properly managed, it will become a liability.

“We just returned from IMF programme. Nigeria is estimated to be over 420 population by 2050. It means we will be more than the United States in terms of population. We need to provide employment and opportunities for our rural population. We need to prepare for this boom,” he said.

Speaking in the Edo State capital, yesterday, he outlined effort made by the CBN to stabilise the nation’s economy, including introduction of the Investors and Exporters Window, which has helped in shoring up the country’s external reserves.

He said the turnover in the I&E FX Window has reached over $48 billion since the inception of the Window while the foreign exchange reserves rose to $45 billion in April 2019 from $23 billion in October 2016.

He said with the improved availability of foreign exchange, the exchange rate at I&E FX Window has remained stable over the past 24 months at an average of N360/$, and the parallel market exchange rate has appreciated from N525/$ in February 2017 to N360/$ today.

He assured that the apex bank would continue to take a proactive approach in mitigating the likely adverse effects that may emanate from external headwinds.

Besides, he said policies that would enhance domestic production of goods that can be produced in Nigeria along with measures that improve the stability of the financial system would continue to be employed.

He added that the CBN would ensure increased coordination between fiscal and monetary policies in deploying measures that will support economic growth and reduce unemployment in the country.

The apex bank chief also called for concerted efforts to insulate the Nigeria’s economy from the potential effects of a slow down in global growth or a decline in commodity  prices.

The warning, he said, became necessary in the face of ongoing trade war between the United States of America and China, two largest world economies, which has resulted in the imposition  of tariffs on goods emanating from both countries.

Emefiele listed other current global uncertainties as normalisation of monetary policy by the US Federal Reserve System, which could lead to acute capital flow reversals and increase financial fragilities in emerging markets; the crude oil market like the US sanctions on crude oil import on Iran and Venezuela,  along with output cuts by OPEC members which is helping to shape outcomes in the crude oil market.

The other, he mentioned, is weak and fragile global growth. He explained that with global output growth downgraded to 3.5 percent in 2019 from 3.7 percent in 2018, there were suggestions that the expected economic downturn may be much more than initially estimated, especially with significant uncertainties brewing around the advanced economies that are expected to lead this growth.

He, however, suggested measures that both the fiscal and monetary authorities could carry out to overcome any of these uncertainties.

This include the need to strengthen Nigeria fiscal buffers in order to improve its ability to address potential downturns in the economy as a result of a slowdown in global growth.

Besides, he said efforts should be intensified at supporting targeted interventions in agriculture  and manufacturing sectors.

He also recommended continued restriction on the importation of items that could be produced in Nigeria and stepping up efforts to curtain smuggling of restricted items into the country. Such astion, he said, would help support domestic production of goods in the country.

He said experience has shown global cycles have the potential of amplifying business cycles in emerging and developing markets which are capable of posing significant challenges to monetary policy.

But he warned that “strong macroeconomic fundamentals may not be enough to insulate the real economy from the effect of vagaries of the uncertainties in the global economic and contagion of poor financial conditions in other emerging economies”.

In the CBN Governor’s view,  “a wider response incorporating a mix of conventional and unconventional monetary policy measures is needed to combat the multi-dimensional headwinds emanating from external shocks and global uncertainties.”

Vice Chancellor, University of Benin, Prof. Friday Orumwense, said as the world becomes increasingly global, new ways must be being explored, hence the lecture series serves as a means to connect and to continue to rub minds together and brainstorm on how to improve on capacity building of the staff. He urged the university staff and the students to take the lecture series seriously.

TheSun

FIVE communities in Lotto area of Ogun State have protested the proposed demolition of over 500 houses by the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing to give way for a proposed road interchange.

Two weeks ago, the ministry’s officials in conjunction with their Julius Berger counterparts marked and enumerated the houses, a situation that has elicited reactions from the landlords in the areas.

Some of the landlords, who spoke to The Nation yesterday, condemned the ministry’s plan.

They accused the ministry of not consulting with residents.

Communities that will be affected are: Orange Estate, Ogo Oluwa, Gbebira, Destiny, Charity, Dominion and Unity.

A statement issued by the  Communities’ Development Associations read: “We received the action of the Ministry as an affront and total disregard for life and well-being of the people, the right and feelings of over 500 householders and millions of other citizens living in the Lotto Community.

“We totally reject and condemned a project that will wipe out the entire community, who had suffered and spent all their hard earned savings to provide shelter for themselves at a time when the government had failed to provide for the citizens.”

The communities said the religious entity, which generate the monthly crowd that put pressure on the road should be the ones to address the problem “within its space without causing a capital loss on the government and injury in form of capital loss and psychological trauma on their neighbours”.

According to the statement, the communities said they appreciated the presence of the various religious bodies in their neighborhood.

They, however, said the interchange design, if it must be considered in the area, “must be scaled down drastically in scope”.

A resident, Francis Ehicasy, who spoke to The Nation on the issue, said: “I am a retiree and I served the Federal Government for 35 years and all my life savings were used to build this house, which I have being living in for 20 years. I was shocked to wake up one day and I discovered that my house was marked for demolition.

“I began to ask questions and they said that the Federal Government want to build an interchange. It is not bad to bring development to a community, but the development that will wipe out a whole community is something that makes me worry.

“Yes, the road is for everybody, but not at the expense of people living in that community.  The government can scale the project down because the design of the interchange leads to nowhere. Then, what is the use of the interchange? A cross-over bridge can serve the same purpose.”

When asked whether he would accept the government’s compensation plan, he said: “What is money to me?  The money is useless to me. I cannot build the same kind of house within six months and then have the same pleasure that I am having there now. You are going to displace me, and my children from their Schools.”

Also, another landlord, Adewummi Badejo, lamented the proposed demolition, saying the demolition would displace him and his family.

Badejo, whose house has also been marked for demolition, said: “I feel so bad that I will be displaced. We don’t want interchange. We prefer a flyover.”

The Federal Controller of Works for Lagos, Ademola Fred Kuti, in his reaction, said the decision to mark the buildings for demolition was in overriding public interest.

He added that the affected property owners would be compensated in accordance with the law.

Kuti stated: “I am aware that we are trying to do some construction around that place. But if we are doing that, there is always room for compensation. Those affected will be adequately compensated in accordance with the law.

“They (residents) are not to tell us where to construct an interchange. Before choosing a location, we look at so many engineering factors and we’ve come up with the best engineering design. So, when the time comes, we will get everything done and if any of those houses has to go, it is in the overriding public interest.

“Nigerians on the road are more important than anyone else. So they should write to meet us instead of protesting, and we’ll tell them what we’re doing. Protesting will not solve any problem.”

TheNation

A depressed and suicidal Nigerian man has burnt his BSc and NYSC certificates. In a video he sent to LIB, the man identified as Korede, said he graduated 5 years ago from the Ladoke Akintola University at the age of 23 and is yet to secure a job.

According to the man, he got admission to further his education in a Canadian University but was unable to go because he was not financially stable. 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

Depressed Nigerian man sets his BSc and NYSC certificates on fire after being unable to secure a job five years after graduation. He says he has been suicidal for a while.

A post shared by Lindaikejiblog (@lindaikejiblogofficial) on May 22, 2019 at 1:02am PDT