Sunday, 26 May 2013
Rogue Banker, Erastus Akingbola, Looted Intercontinental Bank, UK Court Finds …Ordered To Refund N165 Billion Stolen From Depositors’ Fund
Rogue banker, Erastus Akingbola
By SaharaReporters, New York
A London court has found former Chief Executive Officer of the defunct Intercontinental Bank PLC, now Access Bank, Erastus Akingbola, GUILTY of stealing and diverting billions of depositors’ funds to buy properties in the United Kingdom and for buying shares for himself in order to manipulate its share price in the stock market.
The court ruled that Akingbola was liable for directing the bank to buy its own shares at a loss of about 145 billion naira ($902 million), siphoning money to companies controlled by him or his family and using Intercontinental funds to buy real estate in the U.K., Judge Michael Burton said in a ruling in London today.
“Quite apart from being contrary to Nigerian law,” Akingbola’s strategy for the bank to buy its own shares “was simply wrong-headed, and was plainly a substantial contributing factor to the collapse of the bank,” Burton said.
Akingbola, who was fired by Intercontinental and then sued after he moved to London, has been back in Nigeria since 2010 defending a criminal fraud case stemming from the bank’s failure.
“I have no doubt that all the staff in the bank were in awe of him and of his authority,” Justice Burton of the High Court of Justice, Queens Bench Division in London said in the ruling. While Akingbola “wasn’t a ‘details’ man,” the judge said he didn’t “accept or believe that anything major in the bank could have occurred or did occur without his knowledge.”
The judgment “sends a strong message to international investors in Nigeria that it is no longer ’business as usual’ in its banking sector,” Access Bank’s lawyer, Segun Osuntokun of Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP in London, said in a statement.
When 83 million pounds of his assets were frozen in January 2010, Akingbola claimed he had trouble paying his legal bills. Burton gave him permission at the time to sell an $850,000 home in Ghana or two apartments in London worth a total of about 1 million pounds to begin paying the remaining costs of his legal fees.
Under the freeze order, Akingbola was supposed to be able to pay for his defense using an HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) trustee account on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel. The bank declined to release the funds after it was approached by Nigeria, possibly triggering another legal dispute, Akingbola’s lawyer said in court at the time.
Akingbola was managing director of Intercontinental from 1989 to 2009. It was one of Nigeria’s four biggest banks, employing about 20,000 people and running about 350 branches.
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business attorney Irvine
Submitted by business attorney Irvine (not verified) on November 21, 2012 - 07:31.
Wonderful write up.I really like reading it.This post is very informative and knowledgeable too.Thanks for sharing.
Regards:
business attorney Irvine
How does Britain have jurisdiction?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 2, 2012 - 15:06.
Pls go back to school rather than display your foolish ignorance here. I you are too old to school, read the web pages.
Is Sanusi free? He should mot
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 6, 2012 - 20:40.
Is Sanusi free? He should mot judge because everyone of them are thieves. Fine Erastus might be be athief but he provided jobs for thousands nigerians. Were are D jobs today? Thousand were laid off jus
t like dat. How many jobs has Sanusi created? All he does is give figures. Will theoriticall economics gave our youth jobs? Feed us?
Clothe us? Put a roof over head? Fellow Nigerians let us tell our selves the truth. The country nigerian is doomed.O our mother land. I weep for Her lost cause
_
Is Sanusi free? He should mot
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 6, 2012 - 20:38.
Is Sanusi free? He should mot judge because everyone of them are thieves. Fine Erastus might be be athief but he provided jobs for thousands nigerians. Were are D jobs today? Thousand were laid off jus
t like dat. How many jobs has Sanusi created? All he does is give figures. Will theoriticall economics gave our youth jobs? Feed us?
Clothe us? Put a roof over head? Fellow Nigerians let us tell our selves the truth. The country nigerian is doomed.O our mother land. I weep for Her lost cause
_
Nigeria Laws Only Catch Up With The Poor
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 2, 2012 - 20:18.
This brings us to the fact that Nigeria is in dear need of character, cultural, ideological, political deliverance etc. What about his contemporaries? CBN should act fast by probing these people. Our judicial system has failed us completely. Look at the Ibori, Odili,Bankole among others cases. In short the three arms of government has failed us. Our economy is a voodoo one. No jobs, widespread corruption etc. Our leaders are clueless, incompetent and unpatriotic. Are we going back to the colonial era for judicial adjudication? What is wrong with Nigeria? Please God help Nigeria and it 95% poor people from the shackles of our greedy leaders....
How does Britain have jurisdiction?
Submitted by hrh elizabeth (not verified) on August 2, 2012 - 16:08.
Ase ju ti porju! Since when did we go back to being a colony for goodnessakes? ~The British courts have NO Jurisdiction in this matter in EVERYWAY ...
You better mind your comments
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 2, 2012 - 06:23.
You better mind your comments and the kind of people you speak against lest the wrath of God descend on you. Pastor Adeboye is not someone to cast aspersions at.
We are ALL to blame!
Submitted by FiReClOuD OfGoD (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 22:00.
Google: Akingbola, you will see 85,200 results.
Add corruption to his name, and you get about 67,300!
Add PASTOR and you STILL get UP TO 44,000 results!
What did Christ say about kingdom of God?
Matthew 21:31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you."
An article attracted my interest:
ERASTUS AKINGBOLA'S SAGA: WHO IS A CON ARTIST?
http://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2010/aug/192.html strikes me by the comment "Akingbola may represent, but to me, he is even more a victim of the decay in our society."
Nigeria has a lot of work to do. We are ALL to blame for these people's excesses!
Nigeria (Animal Farm)
Submitted by Tony (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 20:54.
What of Jim Ovia (Zenith) and Tony Elumelu (Standard Trust–UBA)? They are all birds of thesame feather. Bank buying back shares at IPO syndrome was started by two of them. They only got free because they were smarter and they are both enjoying their loots now. Nigeria (animal farm) we hail thee!!!
NIGERIA
Submitted by ozuma rock (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 20:21.
When are we getting to the end of this mess.GOD intervention is the solution.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, not your mammon!
Submitted by FiReClOuD OfGoD (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 20:18.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, not your mammon!
Google: Akingbola, you will see 85,200 results.
Add corruption to his name, and you get about 67,300!
Add PASTOR and you STILL get UP TO 44,000 results!
What did Christ say about kingdom of God?
Matthew 21:31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you."
An articleattracted my interest: ERASTUS AKINGBOLA'S SAGA: WHO IS A CON ARTIST?, strikes me by the comment"Akingbola may represent, but to me, he is even more a victim of the decay in our society."
Nigeria has a lot of work to do. We are ALL to blame!
Akingbola:Template Of New Era, Nigerian Mega Churches
Submitted by ferdyokwu (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 18:59.
They have infiltrated the banks, blue chip companies, oil companies, enticing and making their top management "pastors" - pastors without training or calling! They have, by this dirty gimmick taken complete control of the company resources by way of drawing tithes and subjecting majority of company staff into their church membership. Bottom line: these new generation mega churches are all projecting themselves, not Christ, and the bubble is already bursting, starting with Akingbola! The private jets and all stolen money passed on as tithes will burn in hell fire!
Akingbola is a proper thief.
Submitted by Juli (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 18:50.
Akingbola is a proper thief. He contributed seriously to the collapse of the stock market in Nigeria.All our stocks in Intercontinental Bank , we were told, have melted away!He should go for life jail!
What a shame on the Nigerian
Submitted by Moses (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 17:57.
What a shame on the Nigerian legal system. Our Govt. needs real deliverance.
Christians are most decieved pple in Naija.
Submitted by S. S. G. (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 17:24.
I wonder how christians pple used to be decieved. Any rich man is a Pastor, and dey pay this pastors huge amount of money any time they go to church. Why is number of churches increasing? Becouse is one of the fastest way to make money. I pity u pple. Alots of pastors are criminals, they are there to collect ur money and anrich themselves. I could remember when one pastor visited my town some years back. He claimed to be healing pple. Registration fee alone is #3,000 per person. To see him is btw #10k to #20k. But at de end he could not heal a single person. They are using God to cheat u. Why are they not doing things free for the sake of God? Why are they living a luxury life? Think my brothers n sisters.
Erastus the man of God? or man of what now?
Submitted by C Nwabueze (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 16:46.
The decay is deep. Tribalism will not allow a true revoluntion to take place in Nigeria, otherwise, it would have come handy, if only to sanitize our religious communities and sterilize the secular establishments.
That Nigeria is the butt of m any jokes, home and abroad, is as a result of these humongous, monstrous and abominable breeds.
We need a revolution.
we need WHITE MAN BACK TO RULE US
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 15:58.
This is same man that Nigerian justice system found not wanted of the crime he committed against Nigeria economy. It shows that because of corruption nothing GOOD will ever happen in that country with our indegineous rulers, we need to call the WHITE MAN back to guide us.
This is Gold Medal of Shame!!! N165bn = US $1.0bn!! Chaiii!!!
Submitted by CZFR (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 15:43.
Olympics gold medal of Shame for Naija, that is what it is!! Again the uselessness of our judiciary when it comes to handling this "big men" or "rich sacred cows" has been exposed again!!! From james, to erastus now and more coming.
Let's not laugh too much here because Naija is the biggest loser here, whilst the UK & US courts/system are benefiting as they'll likely get a cut of these loots before the rest is returned.
The new lady appointed CJN, Mrs. Mukhtar, certainly has alot of work to do to sanitise the judiciary. Hopefully, she'll get all the support and do the needful!
Finally & importantly, now that CBN/SEC/banks and the whole world know who the real Naija wonder bankers were, they should expedite the release of seized Nospetco funds to the investor!!
Another one bit the dust.
Submitted by Nelson (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 15:40.
Another one bit the dust. Since our (leaders, politicians, police, court, EFCC, etc) can't seem to help us I guess foreign nations would have to do it for us (clean our dirty smelling pant in front of other nations) hope the others will learn that they can't steal our money out to other countries thou they will be forced to use the stolen money to develop or invest back in the country.
Stealing in Jesus name.
Submitted by Henry (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 15:08.
Stealing in Jesus name. Adeboye should return the millions collected from him.
Akingbola Ole, Thief,
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 15:01.
Akingbola Ole, Thief, Barawo.
Erastus tiefy tiefy jankoriko. Oloju wonko wonko. Omo ole ifo. bastard. Ogbonfo. ole ole
Nigerian Judiciary hopefully will take a cue from this ruling
Submitted by OmonBendel (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 13:12.
Nigerian Judiciary, please please I am begging you to PAY ATTENTION. Take a cue from this ruling. All hope is not lost and nothing will happen if IBB, OBJ, Erastus, Atiku, Ali, Odili e.t.c are sent to JAIL. When Bode George went to Jail, nothing happened.
Stop being scared and start sentencing these destroyers of our collective wealth
...look into my eyes and tell me say na u holy pass
Submitted by jennilison2012@yaahoo.com (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 12:56.
Akingbola has changed the lifes of so many younggraduates in early year 2000 with the fast growth and expansion Intercontinental bank.
Access bank was a known debtor to intercontinental bank before the fraudulent acquisation which CBN called merger. it is high time we tell our selves the truth in this country, even people whodoesnt kow how this man managed intercontinental bank from nothing in early 1990s to somthing are complaining about his wealth.
Akingbola i love u.
IT IS NOT THE END YET
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 12:55.
This is just one side of the story. This story sure has part 2. There are lots more. Even UK is not free of corruption and manipulation.
It is not over yet. Every secret will be revealed.
It is a matter of time.
It is not over yet.
Sanusi was right ......these
Submitted by Rebel (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 12:49.
Sanusi was right ......these people should be shot...................
corruption posse
Submitted by abate (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 12:40.
Perhaps you should speak to al.benalbean if he's not busy with tmurry,dreshcler,and kenner from oregaon...lol
Erastus Akingbola is a full
Submitted by Inyang (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 12:09.
Erastus Akingbola is a full fledged Pastor of RCCG. Make una Respect him well well! Remember, "Touch not my anointed...let my anointed do anything they like".
That reminds me, I must get anointed myself so that nobody touches me.
what a shame!!!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 12:04.
Please God stop making our courts, make a mockery of us abroad by all these food is ready judgement (i.e judgement tailored to the demands of the highest bidder) Allow our judges to begin to see themselves as Judges and not investment bankers. Allow the laundering tool of the corruptly powerful EFCC to become independent and conduct its duties diligently. Answer my prayers or bless a dividend Nigeria Amen....
WHY IS HE NOT IN JAIL
Submitted by Drudge (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 11:59.
In a useless country built on the foundation of corruption, people like Erastus are allowed to walk the streets oppressing the poor with their ill gotten wealth. It will never get better unless we do away with the Whitman’s religion and go back to ours that allow for instant justice. The African oath works like magic ones it is administered.
IT IS NOT THE END YET
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on August 1, 2012 - 11:36.
The trust is still in the waiting. Just wait and see. It is not the end yet. This is one sided. Even the British system is not free of corruption and manipulations. watch and see. God will expose all that is hidden in this matter.
