Three Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) officials and five members of staff at First Bank appeared in court on Wednesday to face criminal charges of currency fraud, authorities said.
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), an anti-corruption body, said the bank employees were held in custody in Ibadan on theft and fraud charges totalling 8.27 billion naira ($42 million).
Another three CBN officials, two Sterling Bank staff and two from Ecobank were charged on Tuesday.The central bank employees are accused of “stealing huge sums of mutilated higher denomination naira currencies meant to be exchanged for new notes,” the EFCC said in a statement.
No comment was immediately available from First Bank.
On Monday, the anti-graft body said a total of six central bank officials and 16 commercial bank staff had been accused of currency theft and recirculating over 8 billion naira ($40 million) of notes intended for destruction.
It said the officials pleaded not guilty to the charges and the court had ordered their detention pending bail applications.
President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in last week as leader of Africa’s biggest economy and top oil exporter. A crackdown on corruption was one of his central election campaign pledges.
The central bank regularly withdraws old or torn notes from circulation to replace them with new ones. Officials said the alleged scheme had no impact on money supply or inflation, which has hovered around 8.7 percent since April.
The naira has lost 8.5 percent of its value since the start of the year after sharp falls in the price of oil, Nigeria’s main export, forced the central bank into a de facto devaluation in February in order to save its dwindling foreign reserves.
http://businessdayonline.com/2015/06/efcc-charges-more-bankers-with-n8-27bn-currency-fraud/#.VXB_ytJViko
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