By Fola James
Former managing Director/chief executive officer of the defunct Bank PHB, Francis Atuche did not know that the day of reckoning will come when he conspired with Ugo Anyanwu, the Chief Financial Officer of the bank to steal N25. 7 billion belonging to the commercial bank, Justice Lateefa Okunnu of the Lagos High Court has said.
While sentencing the two accused persons on Wednesday, the judge said the duo conspired to steal the money by using well-recognised stockbrokers to transfer money under the guise of loans and shares. According to her, the fraud would have gone unnoticed if the Central Bank of Nigeria, CND did not wield the big stick at the appropriate time.
Both Atuche and Anyanwu have now been sentenced to six years imprisonment by the judge who said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC proved its case beyond reasonable doubt after 10 years of trial.
However, the judge freed Atuche’s wife for lack of evidence that she was involved in the fraud with her husband.
Justice Okunnu ruled in her judgment that “The first defendant (Atuche) and the third defendant (Anyanwu) are found guilty of counts one to 11, 14 to 20, 23 and 24 of the charges contained in the information, and are convicted of conspiracy and stealing,” the judge said.
“On counts 12, 13, 21, 22 and 26, I pronounce the first to third defendants not guilty as the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. On counts 25 and 27, the second defendant (Elizabeth) is found not guilty.
“By stealing from the bank, they stole from innocent customers of the bank. I hereby make an order of restitution against the first and third defendants to refund the sums stated in counts one to 11, 14 and 24.
“The sums are to paid to the relevant agencies that recovered the funds on behalf of the bank.
“The first defendant is hereby sentenced to six years’ imprisonment on counts one to 11, 14 to 20, 23 and 24. The third defendant is hereby sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on counts one to 11, 14 to 20, 23 and 24.”
Okunnu said the accused persons committed the fraud using proxies, noting that Atuche was very combative and rude during cross examinations.
According to the judge“It was a well-planned, well-executed scheme but the bubble burst when the Central Bank of Nigeria intervened,” she said.
“The first defendant (Atuche) was diversionary and evasive on the witness stand; sometimes confrontational and rude. The third defendant (Anyanwu) was also combative and rude under cross-examination.”
On Atuche’s wife, the judge said there was no proof that the two companies affiliated to Elizabeth fraudulently received N2 billion worth of Bank PHB shares.
In June 2015, Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo of an Ikeja High Court discharged and acquitted the former Bank PHB chief executive on the basis that he found no merit in the case preferred against him by the EFCC.
IN his ruling Justice Lawal-Akapo said though the prosecution had properly preferred counts 1 to 10 bordering on criminal stealing against the defendants, but ruled that counts 11 to 27 of the charges did not connect the defendants’ theft with shares and stocks.
He cited the cases of Erastus Akingbola and Okey Nwosu, former chief executives of Intercontinental Bank and FinbanK, respectively as precedents.
