CBN dismisses staff involved in N8bn mutilated note scam

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Monday that it had since October 21, 2014, dismissed some of its staff allegedly involved in a currency fraud running into N8 billion, and also placed some others on indefinite suspension, depending on the gravity of their offence.
The CBN said it had also handed all of them, who it called ‘middle level officers’ of the bank and not top officials as being reported, to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further investigation and prosecution.
The EFCC said it would arraign the six CBN staff and 16 others for circulating defaced and mutilated notes at the Federal High Court, Ibadan, Oyo State, today.
In a statement yesterday to clarify issues surrounding the scam, the CBN disclosed it actually uncovered the scam during a routine internal audit of the bank’s Cash Destruction activities in September 2014. The CBN Briquetting Panel comprising senior bank staff from different branches noticed some anomalies at the Ibadan branch, and immediately reported this to the management.
The apex bank explained that on further investigation ordered by its governor, Godwin Emefiele, it was discovered that a systematic scheme, which has been on for several years, was being run in which mutilated higher denomination notes originally meant for destruction were swapped with lower denomination currencies. This practice, known as interleafing, basically labels a box with a higher value than its true content, the bank further explained.
“As soon as the bank’s internal investigations concluded beyond reasonable doubt that some wrong doing had occurred, the affected members of staff who are middle-level officers were, depending on gravity of offence, either summarily dismissed or immediately placed on indefinite suspension on 21 October 2014, and all handed over to the EFCC for further investigation and prosecution,” Ibrahim Mu’azu, CBN director of communications, said in the statement.
The CBN said it had also conducted a nationwide audit of all 37 branches of the bank and found that this was an isolated scheme at Ibadan branch, and assured of continuous collaboration with the EFCC to ensure that affected CBN staff, as well as their accomplices in some commercial banks, were brought to justice.
Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesperson, had on Sunday said the suspects would be arraigned for circulating defaced and mutilated notes at the Ibadan Federal High Court today, saying the CBN staff, alongside 16 other suspects identified as members of staff of various commercial banks in the country, would be arraigned on five counts charge.
He said all the suspects now in custody connived to recycle the defaced and mutilated currencies they were asked to destroy by substituting the notes with newspaper cuttings in naira note sizes.
“The suspects, drawn from various business units of the apex bank, are to be docked by the anti-graft agency before a Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State, from Tuesday, June 2, 2015, to Thursday, June 4, 2015. The remaining 16 suspects are drawn from various commercial banks who were found to have conspired with the CBN executives to swing the heist,” Uwajaren said.