The act of defrauding by Alhaji
Mohammed Gobir fetched him a huge fortune in both local and foreign currencies
worth billions of Naira.
The Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC burst his major corporate fraud when it took into
custody Alhaji Mohammed Gobir for allegedly defrauding foremost outdoor
advertising company, Afromedia, huge sums of money in various currencies.
The suspect illegally
collected $3,500,000, N514,457,151.87, $2,102,740 and 51,000 Pounds Sterling at
various times. Gobir, a 55-year-old father of two, was picked by the operatives
of EFCC in the early hours of Saturday in his Ikoyi residence and taken to the
Lagos office of the anti-graft agency for interrogation.
The suspect allegedly
defrauded the advertising company through a phony investment deal.
He was allegedly introduced
to Afromedia sometime in 2008 by their Private Placement Consultants, Synergy
Capital Advisory Limited, as a high net-worth investor who was willing to
inject N1 billion into the company through the acquisition of shares.
Based on his touted
pedigree as potential investor, Gobir wormed his way into the hearts of the
management and in no time, became chairman of the Business Development
Committee of the board of directors of the company, a position which he would
later use to defraud the company.
Having earned the trust of
the company owners, Gobir started demanding large sum of money which he termed
as business expenses to international consultants, Royal Exchange Bureau, in
the United Kingdom in order to facilitate and secure investments from a United
Kingdom-based bank.
The company gave Gobir the
sum of $1,000,000 in cash and also paid for his travel expenses on a first
class return ticket to UK where he would meet with the purported investors,
which investigation later revealed never-existed nor were the meetings ever held.
On one good day after the suspect had collected huge sums of money and made
several trips to the UK to meet with the purported investors, the Group
Managing Director of Afromedia accompanied him to the UK for another round of
meeting ostensibly to close the deal.
But as soon as they landed
in the UK, Gobir made a telephone call in which his travel companion overheard
him scream aloud, saying his assets were seized by UK anti- money laundering
authorities. He even showed the GMD an email sent to him for the alleged
seizure.
The suspect later presented
a “waiver certificate”, to the company and promised to pay them all the monies
he had collected Up till the time of his arrest, the suspect had not paid the
company a kobo. EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, who confirmed the arrest,
said investigation into the scam was continuing.
The suspect confessed to
the MD of Afromedia that his money ($250,000,000) had earlier been seized by
the British authorities over allegations of money laundering and that he was
currently financially handicapped and needed a bailout in the sum of $3,817,000
to get the European Union Money Laundering Waiver Certificate.
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