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Polls: Politicians in huge cash transfer deals with BDCs – Investigation

By on April 7, 2011

Politicians seeking elective posts have been transferring huge amounts of cash from foreign countries into Nigeria, mainly through Bureau de Change accounts, investigation by our correspondent has revealed.

The BDC accounts, called “Aboki accounts” among the operators, can be used to move large sums of up to $3m (N450m) in cash, according to findings.

Our correspondent gathered from a dealer that the transfers were mostly done through domiciliary accounts, and were taken through the BDCs to beat the Central Bank of Nigeria’s regulation on money transfer by individuals and corporate bodies.

Under its cash transfer guidelines, the CBN requires banks to disclose to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, transactions of 1m, for individual accounts, and N5m for corporate accounts.

The dealer, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said, “It’s easy for the Bureau de Change dealers to transfer huge sums of money because of the peculiar nature of the business. They have a way of transferring large sums of foreign currencies in cash, up to $3m without any trace.

“Politicians at this point in time are spending heavily on electioneering.”

Officials of the foreign exchange unit of some Deposit Money Banks also confirmed to our correspondent that some politicians and fraudsters were transferring huge sums of money from foreign countries through BDCs.

An official of one of the banks, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity because he could not speak officially on the matter, said, “As an individual, if you want to execute a transaction above N1m, you will need to give extra details about yourself. These people (politicians) do not want to be linked with these transactions because of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

“So, they prefer to use the dealers to front for them because of the kind of business they do, which allows them to perform huge transactions in cash.”

He added that politicians were also moving huge amounts of money through the accounts of cash-intensive businesses.

“Cash-intensive businesses are businesses typically involved in receiving cash. The politicians use the accounts to deposit huge cash, claiming that everything is legitimate earnings,” the source said.

The Head, Corporate Affairs, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Muhammed Abdullahi, however, told our correspondent on Wednesday that the Class “A” BDC was cancelled because of such operations.

He said, “I am not saying that it is not possible because you cannot remove the Nigerian factor. But we have not heard of any politician “A” doing such transactions.

“We have said that banks and financial institutions should not give politicians money for elections. This extends to the BDCs too. We have not heard of any BDC siphoning money for politicians. If there is any unusual movement of cash, we will take action, and any BDC or bank found wanting will be penalised seriously. We have stipulated guidelines against such transactions and that was why we cancelled the Class ‘A’ category of BDCs.”

The CBN had on November 8, 2010, withdrawn the licences of Class ‘A’ bureaux de change as part of measures to stem the gross abuse of the enhanced Class ‘A’ BDCs in line with its commitment to eradicating money laundering.

It had said, “The latest appraisal of the policy initiative revealed gross abuses of the enhanced official funding of the Class ‘A’ category and the negation of the expected benefits to the economy.

“Available information also revealed that the target end-users have been sidelined, while large transactions that should have been channelled through the banking system have been carried out through Class ‘A’ BDCs. The bank has also been inundated with complaints from foreign countries that some Nigerian travellers indulge in cross-border transportation of large sums of foreign currencies in cash.”

source : Punch