Also suspended, as announced by the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele for failing to follow financial regulations and due process, were four deputy directors of the apex bank.
Information reaching us indicated that out of the total amount the bank was duped, it was $190,000 that the fraudsters were able to cash.
It was gathered that two of the scammers have been arrested in Dubai in the United Arab
Emirate and are currently being questioned by investigators.
From their modus operandi, the scammers apparently timed the execution of the fraud to take place when the CBN governor and other deputy governors were out of the country.
The suspended senior officials of the bank were seen to have derelicted against the bank’s regulations regarding respond to spam emails which they ought to first cross-check to ascertain the authenticity of the mails. It is said that CBN has stringent payment process before authorising the release of funds and that those officials authorised the release of the funds when the governor and several senior officials of the bank were on a flight to China last month.
The deputy directors affected by the suspension include the deputy director in charge of payment, the deputy director trade and exchange department, and the deputy director in the office of the governor, who heeded Nnanna’s directive to pay when they themselves ought to know CBN’s payment due process.
A statement posted on CBN website only stated that the bank had uncovered and aborted fraud without giving details.
The four-paragraph CBN statement, signed by the Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okoroafor, and titled, ‘CBN Uncovers and Aborts Fraud,’ reads:
“A highly sophisticated plot to defraud the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by some criminal minded elements has been uncovered and aborted by the bank.
“Although preliminary investigations so far have not revealed any accomplices within the CBN, management has decided to place all key personnel involved in the transaction on suspension.
“This is to ensure a full and unfettered investigation.
“This incidence has been reported to relevant authorities. The CBN wishes to assure the general public that the security of the bank remains intact.”
Hackers have been on the prowl lately breaching accounts of banks around the world. Recently, hackers breached Bangladesh Bank’s systems and attempted to steal nearly $1 billion from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Though a typo error by the hackers aborted their $1billion heist, they however netted more
than $80 million before the cyber heist was uncovered.
The hackers appeared to have stolen Bangladesh Bank’s credentials for the SWIFT messaging system, which banks around the world use for secure financial communication.
They then bombarded the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with about three dozen requests to move money from the Bangladesh Bank’s account there to entities in the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Four requests to transfer a total of about $81 million to the Philippines went through, but a fifth, for $20 million, to a Sri Lankan non-profit organization was held up because the hackers mis-spelled the name of the NGO, Shalika Foundation, prompting a routing bank, Deutsche Bank, to seek clarification from the Bangladesh central bank, which stopped the transaction. [myad]
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