Foreign currency Diversion-Oil & Gas MD in Police net

If the name Heshgood Oil and Gas Limited had been a famous one within Nigeria’s Oil and Gas sector, the transfer of over $5,405,776.09 into its account, from an oversea bank, would not have jolted officials of a

new generation bank in Lagos State. But the strangeness of the name made the bankers suspect fowl play and they promptly alerted Anti-Fraud operatives at the Special Fraud Unit, Milverton Street, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Spurred by the  suspicion, the bank quickly contacted the foreign bank where the funds originated from, and it was instantaneously established that the funds were intercepted en-route Nigeria, for one of the Oil and Gas giants in the country (names withheld), through a sister company owning an offshore account, and it was subsequently diverted into Heshgood’s account, by suspected fraudsters.

A bank official who craved for anonymity said; “It’s in our practice to verify such enormous transfer that goes in and out of the country through our bank to foreign banks. And it’s very imperative for us to alert owners of such funds during such transfers, because no bank wants to be seen as aiding and abating fraud”.
The Heshgood’s account, with No. 4070918635, was immediately placed under red alert and 24 hours monitoring in order to forestall any possible withdrawal by the supposed syndicate. But at 9: am on 4th of May 2011, Clark Ejuren the Managing Director of  Heshgood Oil and Gas Limited walked into the Victoria Island branch of the new generational bank, where he attempted making swift withdrawal of the funds.
Speaking to an account officer at the bank, Mr. Clark Ejuren, was asked to wait in a room while his withdrawal was being processed. The bankers promptly alerted the police and they raced to the bank and immediately whisked Mr. Ejuren away for interrogations.
An official of the bank identified as Chinedu Alozie who spoke with Crime Alert narrated how the suspect was arrested in the banking hall; “First, we did not rule out the possibility of an error while the account was being watched. However, when Mr. Clark Ejuren arrived, he requested the complete withdrawal of all the money in his account, in one installment, which is quite unusual for an oil firm in business.
They don’t request for complete withdrawal of all their funds rather they seek for transfer of their funds to any account of their choice during transactions. His actions further confirmed our suspicions and we had no other option than to bring in the police.” he said.
While under interrogation by a team of anti-fraud detectives at the SFU, Mr. Ejuren denied all allegations leveled against him by the bank, and rather claimed to be a legitimate oil dealer  who specialized in crude oil sales. He also claimed that the said funds found in his account were proceeds from crude oil transactions he had with some friends based abroad.
According to him; “I am not a fraudster as presumed by the bank and I don’t indulge in any illegality. I am legitimate dealer and my firm has been in business for a long time. We specialized in crude oil sales. We have foreign buyers who buy these crude from us. They buy from us and send back our proceeds to my local account. The money in my account was the proceeds of the transactions that were sent straight to my accounts”. He claimed.
But while Mr. Clark was still undergoing interrogations at the SFU’s custody,  a new twist greeted the story as  a whopping  sum of $4,700,000.00, belonging to another customer of the bank was diverted into Heshgood’s 4070918635 account with the same  bank.
According to Police sources, “the new twist actually confirmed most of our allegations, though, formally, we knew he was neck deep into  the crime but we were just treading softly with him. His early claims of being an oil exporter were absolutely untrue because during searches carried out in his apartment and office, we couldn’t get anything in relation to his claims; all we found were various bank cheques.
But so far, our investigations have revealed that Mr. Clark operates a sophisticated fraud syndicate that specialized in hacking into companies email accounts. They also carry out dubious operations in the banks to the extent that the sender of such funds would be made to believe that there is a problem with the previous account and they need them to send it to their new account. In that process, these funds are diverted into their own fraudulent accounts. We are currently searching for other members of the syndicate as we are confident that he is not alone. ”
Meanwhile, the Commission of Police in -charge of SFU, CP. Chinwike Asadu,  while commending officials of the bank for their alertness which made it possible for the apprehension of the suspect and foiling of the scam, he ordered that the suspect be charged to court. He also reiterated the determination of the Nigeria Police to stamp out menace of the internet fraud in the country.(Vanguard)

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