An Old Generation Bank customer’s account was compromised during a three-day cyberattack by suspected hackers, who then fraudulently moved N523,337,100 from the account to 18 separate accounts in the same bank.
SP Eyitayo Johnson, the spokesman for the Ikoyi, Lagos State, Police Special Fraud Unit, in a statement released on Wednesday, said the suspects thereafter transferred the funds from the 18 accounts into 225 more accounts held by 22 different banks and financial institutions.
He added that two individuals had been detained in connection with the crime. He claimed that the concerted cyber-attack took place between Saturday, April 23, and the early hours of Monday, April 25, 2022, before businesses opened.
The statement reads, “The legal section of the Police Special Fraud Unit in Ikoyi-Lagos, headed by CSP E. A. Jackson, has successfully obtained an order of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, for the preservation/forfeiture/attachment of a net sum of N523,337,100 fraudulently transferred by Internet fraudsters who hacked a customer’s account domiciled in one of the old-generation banks and posted the funds into 18 different accounts in the same bank before transmitting same to 225 other accounts in 22 banks/financial institutions.
“In the course of the investigation, the sum of N160,287,071.47 was recovered from different banks; with two suspects arrested, while operatives are following other leads in order to apprehend the remaining members of the syndicate. The suspects will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.”
In a related development, Johnson said that the legal division of the unit prosecuted one Sikiru Olayinka and his firm, Excampo Nigeria Limited, to the Federal High Court, Ikoyi-Lagos, for crimes including the fraudulent conversion and theft of $123,000.00, which was money that was mistakenly placed into his company’s domiciliary account on September 5, 2018.
He said, “On receipt of the funds into his account, Sikiru Olawale, within hours, quickly visited the bank and transferred $120,000.00 in two tranches into accounts of his cronies.
“The bank made concerted efforts to recover the funds in order to channel same to the rightful account but Sikiru Olayinka refused and frustrated these efforts and continued to dissipate the money contrary to the provisions of Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, 1991, and the Failed Banks Act, 1994.” he added.
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