What We Now Know About The CBN ‘Email Fraud’

It is becoming clearer how the recently suspended Deputy CBN Governor was scammed by fraudsters. Last Friday, the CBN issued a press release that it had “uncovered a highly sophisticated plot to defraud the Central Bank”.

Firstly, we now know that the Deputy CBN Governor who was suspended was Dr. Joseph Nnana, Deputy Governor Financial System Surveillance, Joseph Nnanna. Here is a summary of what we now know

• According to reports from the media and those familiar with the issue, the scammers hacked into the email account of the CBN Governor emails account sending out authorization to the Deputy Governor of the CBN to sell forex.
• Other deputy directors of the bank including the deputy director in charge of payment, the deputy director trade and exchange department, and the deputy director in the office of the governor were all suspended.
• About $441,000 was initially lost to the scammers. $251,000 was however blocked and recovered, leaving a balance of $190,000, which had already been cashed by the fraudsters (Source: Thisday)
• Two of the scammers have been caught in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and are currently being questioned by investigators.
• Thisday also reports that the scammers apparently timed the execution of the fraud to take place when the CBN governor and other deputy governors were out of the country.
• We also learnt from insiders in the bank that this scam may have been going on for some time and that this may not be an isolated case
• None of the laid-down procedures for the release of funds was followed by the affected officials of the bank

Dr. Okwu Joseph Nnana was appointed Deputy Governor by former President Goodluck Jonathan and was confirmed by the Senate in January 2015. Just a few weeks back, Dr Nnana  lamented that about $20bn (N3.94tn) lying idle in different domiciliary accounts of Nigerians is one of the reasons responsible for the depreciation of the Naira against the dollar. He also remarked that those who were speculating with the naira will get their fingers burnt.“Those who speculate on dollars will have their fingers burnt,”