A Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has sentence the former Managing Director of Bank PHB, now Keystone Bank, Francis Atuche to six years imprisonment over N25.7 billion fraud charges.
Delivering judgement after 13hours long analysis of the each count charge, Justice Lateefa Okunnu found Atuche and his former Chief Financial Officer, Ugo Anyanwu guilty as charge.
She sentence Anyanwu to four years imprisonment on each count charge consecutively.
They were convicted for 21 out 27 counts charges.
The judge however discharged and acquitted Atuche’s wife noting that the prosecution failed to prove conspiracy allegations levelled against her in the charges.
The judge noted that Atuche abused his position of trust by stealing from the bank.
“By stealing from the bank, they stole from innocent customers.
“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.
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“The sums are to paid to the relevant agencies that recovered funds on behalf of the bank.
Justine Okunnu said Atuche and Anyanwu were able to defraud Bank PHB of billions of Naira using well recognised stock brokers to transfer money belonging to the bank under the guise of loans and shares.
“It was a well planned, well executed scheme but the bubble burst when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervened” she noted.
The judge also noted that a large volume of documentary evidence was produced by parties in the case.
She said documents such as bank records, emails and the statements of key actors in the case played a key role in securing the conviction of the defendants.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had in 2011 arraigned Atuche, his wife and the then financial officer of the moribund bank PHB Plc (now Keystone Bank), Mr. Ugo Anyanwu, over the alleged fraud.
The commission in the charge sheet which was read to the former bank executives alleged that they committed the offence between November 2007 and September 2008.
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EFCC alleged that the accused persons sold 241, 579, 284 units of Afribank shares, a joint property of Caverton Helicopters Ltd, and Bank PHB Plc and converted the proceeds for their personal use.
The three accused persons were alleged to have fraudulently converted some of the stolen money into loans to Congipar Nig. Ltd and using same for their personal use.
The EFCC claims the alleged offences contravene Sections 516 and 383 of the Criminal Code Law, CAP C17, Laws of Lagos State, 2003. .
In the charge against Atuche’s wife Elizabeth, she was alleged to have stolen N8.5 billion belonging to the bank between November, 2007 and April, 2008.
The EFCC alleged that Mrs Atuche fraudulently converted the proceeds of several loans for the acquisition of 337,500,000 and 168,750,000 units of Bank PHB shares on behalf of Ghazali Yakubu Investment Limited and AFCO Associates Limited.
The alleged offences contravene Sections 519 and 383 of the Criminal Code Law, CAP C17, Laws of Lagos State 2003.
The accused persons pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
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After about three years into the trial, Atuche and co-defendants approached Court of Appeal to challenge their trial by the lower court for lack of jurisdiction.
In a judgement delivered in September 2016, the Appellate Court stopped the lower court from going ahead with the trial.
The appellate court also failed to quash the charges against Atuche, his wife and others but ordered Justice Okunnu to hands off the trial.
The appellate court further directed the Chief Judge of Lagos State to re-assign the case to another judge.
Following the decision of the court of appeal, the EFCC approached the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of the lower court and order trial in the matter.
In an unanimous decision, the apex court overturned the decision of the appellate court.
The panel agreed that the lower court’s decisions on the matter was “perverse” and, therefore ought to be set aside.
Justice Ejembi Eko, who prepared and read the lead judgment of the apex court, said the order which the Court of Appeal made on September 23, 2016, for the remittance of case to the Lagos State Chief Judge for the purpose of re-assigning the case to another judge, was not aimed at serving the interest of justice.
