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The Federal Government has began criminal investigation into alleged misappropriation of two billion dollars worth of Atlas Mara’s Union Back Plc shares owned by 65,000 shareholders.
The Federal Ministry of Justice which disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja, said the probe was hinged on a petition reporting the alleged fraud submitted to the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, on April 3, 2019.
The petition is titled “Official corruption, misuse of FGN USD2 billion, fraud and unjust enrichment of persons who dispossessed more than 65,000 Nigerians and conferred ownership of the Bank on few Nigerians and their foreign accomplices’’.
The petition had fingered former Central Bank Governor, the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II, under whose watch the transaction was perpetuated.
Also accused of alleged complicity in the transactions were the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma and the Minister of Trade and Investment, Okey Enelamah.
The Minister was fingered as allegedly leading Africa Capital Alliance to form the Mauritius shell company to house Nigerians pretending to be foreign investors.
The transactions allegedly dispossessed Nigerian shareholders and investors in order to transfer ownership of the bank to a few persons including insiders, chieftains of competitor banks and others who would not pass CBN’s “fit and proper’’ test for bank ownership.
The petition claimed that Enelamah allegedly organised the registration of the offshore shell company in Mauritius called Union Global Partners Limited for the purpose of disguising the true majority ownership of Union Bank shares concealed in the offshore company.
The petition alleged that the transactions commenced under Udoma’s supervision as Chairman of Security and Exchange Commission and sealed up when he became the Chairman of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc.
“The circumstances can best be described as official corruption and insider trading’’, the petition allege.
The petition further alleged that Udoma and the officials granted a renewable five year waiver to Union Bank of Nigeria to remain listed on the exchange in spite of being owned by a few private equity firms till today.
According to the petition, the alleged unlawful action is to ensure the more than 65,000 Nigerian former shareholders whose shares were diluted from 85 per cent to less than 15 per cent of public float to still be listed on Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
“It is to be recalled that 49 per cent shares of Union Bank of Nigeria plc is now majority owned and controlled by London listed Atlas Mara, the investment company led by Robert Diamond Jr.
“Mr Diamond is a former Chief Executive Officer of Barclays Bank who was sacked for his involvement in manipulating LIBOR.
“Not only is Mr Diamond not a fit and proper person to own a bank according to the rules of Nigeria, he had also been blacklisted by the Bank of England as a result of the LIBOR manipulation.
“One wonders how the former CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi authorised the Union Bank change of ownership transaction and bridged it with $2billion national patrimony, in spite of glaring evidence of fraud and the nature of the ultimate foreign owner who was already known and waiting in the wings. The petitioners allege.
“There are evidences that Atlas Mara has visions of owning 100 percent of Union Bank of Nigeria plc which they can only achieve by buying shares warehoused by the few privileged Nigerians that acquired the bank in apparently under the circumstance.
