Billionaire Businessman, Femi Otedola has accused Jim Ovia, Chairman of Zenith Bank Plc of fraudulently using an account belonging to his company, Seaforce Shipping Limited, to trade in 2011 without his knowledge or consent.
Otedola, who is said to be very miffed by the development, has already submitted his findings to the Force Criminal Investigation department(FCID) of the Nigerian Police and sources privy to the matter believe that the bank chairman may be invited for questioning.
BACKGROUND
Findings indicate that Seaforce’s account domiciled in Zenith Bank has not been operated since 2010 but strangely continued to be used for Trading.
According to the Petition to the Police, the company has never applied for any loan from Zenith bank but unauthorised trading was going on with account running to the tune of Billions of Naira.
Mr. Otedola was only able to discover the fraud recently after a whistleblower in the bank reached out to him. Transactions over N16 Billion have been recorded on Seaforce’s account since 2011 till date (13 years).
‘SHOCKING TRANSACTIONS’
According to Cable, a letter written on March 19th, 2018 by Zenith bank to Seaforce’s auditors, Shofolawe-Bakare & Co, shows that a debt of N2,278,420 on the account against a N5 billion recorded in the company’s bank statements.
Curiously, on the day the letter, signed by Taofik Bashir (internal audit control) and Edwin Kind Olie (group head, telecomm), was written, the bank statement showed a debt of N2.9 billion.
The company’s account statement shows credits of N77,169,375.00 on April 18, 2011, N119,822,762.50 on December 01, 2011, N316,537,329.30 on December 8, 2011, N266,361,181.73 on December 15, 2011 and N444,304,524.50 on December 12, 2011. Transactions Otedola was not aware of.
AFTERMATH
Currently, several options are being explored to resolve the matter as Zenon, Seaforce, Luzon Oil and Gas, Garment Care Limited, and Otedola himself have secured a federal high court injunction against Zenith Bank, Quantum Zenith Securities and Investment, Veritas Registrar, and Central Securities Clearing System, restraining them from trading with shares or paying dividends.
Currently, key official(s) of the bank have been interrogated by FCID operatives.
More to come…