Did AbdulSamad Rabiu, owner of BUA Group used official forex exchange at Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to defraud Nigerians billions of dollars through illegal allocations?
Spotlight on the activities of the CBN by security operatives has allegedly linked BUA Group to a wave of forex round-tripping in active connivance with diagraced former Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, who, according to investigations by a coded intelligence team, was issuing orders and instructions to facilitate the movement of big money from the apex bank to BUA Group accounts.
A report by Point Blank News said that Rabiu allegedly used BUA Group as a front to move huge sums out of CBN at official exchange rate ostensibly to finance his business only to offload the money in the black market at over 150 percent profit.
The online newspaper noted that the BUA Group chief did not act alone but only offered his company to be used to deplete the nation’s forex reserve in league with Emefiele between 2016 and 2017.
The documents showed curious financial transactions in the year 2016 between CBN and BUA Group with evidence of huge credit from the CBN to Rabiu’s BUA Group.
Findings showed that while the money was officially documented as facility to support manufacturing, it was always ending up at the parallel market where Rabiu makes huge profits which security sources said he was sharing the profit with a top CBN official.
For instance, on 8th January 2016, the CBN ordered the transfer of N1,382,500,000 being forex purchase to Rabiu’s company.
Ten days later, precisely on 18th January, BUA international purchased the dollar equivalent of N386,799,033.70 using the official rate of N199 while black market rate was selling for N495. On the same day, the CBN ordered another disbursement of forex worth N520,217,528 to BUA. Not satisfied with the day’s takings, another N1,382,500,000 was also sent on the same day.
On 22nd January 2016, another N386,799,033 and N520,217,528 was again wired from CBN account in forex to BUA. On 15th February, similar disbursement of N386,799.033, N1,382,500,000 and N520,217,528 left the CBN’s account to BUA.
Similarly, on 23rd February 2016, N386,799.033 and N520,217,528 further enriched the account of BUA International on the order of the top CBN executive. Same routine was repeated on 2nd March when the company got another lodgment of N386,799,033 and N520,217,528.
On 11th March, BUA further purchased $12,282,002 in double tranches from CBN while on 23rd March, $29,625,000 was also moved from CBN to Rabiu’s BUA Sugar Refinery account at Ecobank with account number 9992021618. On 31st March, the country’s foreign reserved depleted with $49,375,000 from CBN to BUA credited to its Ecobank account number 9992023306.
Through its GTB account number 214161839, N2 billion worth of US dollar was wired at the official rate of N197.5 to BUA by CBN.
Investigation further revealed that under the guise of CBN intervention fund, when the company was financially viable, the sum of N392,034,060 in three tranches was paid to BUA Sugar Refinery using the official rate of N198 to its Stanbic IBTC account number 11889618. Troves of these financial documents saw over N40 billion given to BUA alone in the year 2016 with the active connivance of the CBN chief.
The forex would continue on June 7th via an internal secret memo, Y.M. Sanusi, the CBN Director of Corporate Secretariat wrote to the Director of Banking & Payments System via Deputy Governor of Operations on the decisions of the committee of Governors to make payment to Rabiu. The billionaire submitted one of his companies known as Bua Rice Limited with Sterling Bank account number 0062487976 to receive the money. This payment to the billionaire would later be taken from the controversial Ways and Means account of the FG.
In making the payment, Sanusi wrote “I write to inform you that the Committee of Governors at its 512th Meeting held on Wednesday 7th June, 2017 considered Memorandum CG/JUN/512/2017/12 on the request from the Honorable Minister of Finance for the payment of N5,865,671,389.26 for Emergency Intervention on Food Security to Support the population affected by Insurgency in the North-East and granted anticipatory approval pending ratification by the Board of directors.Diligent security scrutiny has unearthed how Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, founder of BUA Group, used official forex exchange at Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to launder billions of dollars in one of the biggest forex round-tripping heists in Nigeria.
Early spotlight on the activities of CBN by security operatives has linked BUA Group to a wave of forex round-tripping in active connivance with a top CBN executive (name withheld) who, according to investigations by a coded intelligence team, was issuing orders and instructions to facilitate the movement of big money from the apex bank to BUA Group accounts.
Documents seen by our reporter showed that Rabiu used BUA Group as a front to move huge sums out of CBN at official exchange rate ostensibly to finance his business only to offload the money in the black market at over 150 percent profit.
Investigations showed that the BUA Group chief did not act alone but only offered his company to be used to deplete the nation’s forex reserve in league with a top CBN official between 2016 and 2017.
The documents showed curious financial transactions in the year 2016 between CBN and BUA Group with evidence of huge credit from the CBN to Rabiu’s BUA Group.
Findings showed that while the money was officially documented as facility to support manufacturing, it was always ending up at the parallel market where Rabiu makes huge profits which security sources said he was sharing the profit with a top CBN official.
For instance, on 8th January 2016, the CBN ordered the transfer of N1,382,500,000 being forex purchase to Rabiu’s company.
Ten days later, precisely on 18th January, BUA international purchased the dollar equivalent of N386,799,033.70 using the official rate of N199 while black market rate was selling for N495. On the same day, the CBN ordered another disbursement of forex worth N520,217,528 to BUA. Not satisfied with the day’s takings, another N1,382,500,000 was also sent on the same day.
On 22nd January 2016, another N386,799,033 and N520,217,528 was again wired from CBN account in forex to BUA. On 15th February, similar disbursement of N386,799.033, N1,382,500,000 and N520,217,528 left the CBN’s account to BUA.
Similarly, on 23rd February 2016, N386,799.033 and N520,217,528 further enriched the account of BUA International on the order of the top CBN executive. Same routine was repeated on 2nd March when the company got another lodgment of N386,799,033 and N520,217,528.
On 11th March, BUA further purchased $12,282,002 in double tranches from CBN while on 23rd March, $29,625,000 was also moved from CBN to Rabiu’s BUA Sugar Refinery account at Ecobank with account number 9992021618. On 31st March, the country’s foreign reserved depleted with $49,375,000 from CBN to BUA credited to its Ecobank account number 9992023306.
Through its GTB account number 214161839, N2 billion worth of US dollar was wired at the official rate of N197.5 to BUA by CBN.
Investigation further revealed that under the guise of CBN intervention fund, when the company was financially viable, the sum of N392,034,060 in three tranches was paid to BUA Sugar Refinery using the official rate of N198 to its Stanbic IBTC account number 11889618. Troves of these financial documents saw over N40 billion given to BUA alone in the year 2016 with the active connivance of the CBN chief.
The forex would continue on June 7th via an internal secret memo, Y.M. Sanusi, the CBN Director of Corporate Secretariat wrote to the Director of Banking & Payments System via Deputy Governor of Operations on the decisions of the committee of Governors to make payment to Rabiu. The billionaire submitted one of his companies known as Bua Rice Limited with Sterling Bank account number 0062487976 to receive the money. This payment to the billionaire would later be taken from the controversial Ways and Means account of the FG.
In making the payment, Sanusi wrote “I write to inform you that the Committee of Governors at its 512th Meeting held on Wednesday 7th June, 2017 considered Memorandum CG/JUN/512/2017/12 on the request from the Honorable Minister of Finance for the payment of N5,865,671,389.26 for Emergency Intervention on Food Security to Support the population affected by Insurgency in the North-East and granted anticipatory approval pending ratification by the Board of directors.
Source: PointBlank News
