Detectives may have found more “suspicious” funds in Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen’s accounts.
There are also “suspicious” transactions, including an $800,000 Standard Chartered Bank investment subscription, the Nation reports. . . Also found is $630,000 lodged in some of the accounts through what is described as “structured payments” in tranches of $10,000 each. . . Most of the lodgments, effected between 2012 and 2016, were undeclared in Justice Onnoghen’s assets declaration form, sources claimed. . . The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has restricted the operation of five accounts with about $3million. . . Detectives believe that most of the lodgments and transactions are “suspicious”. An intelligence report on the CJN’s accounts reads in part: “Pattern ofstructured payments of $10,000 each in 2012. . . For example, a total of $630,000 was credited to the accounts using this pattern. Similarly structured payments of $10,000 amounting to $297,800, $50,000 and $36,000 were deposited in the account in 2013, 2015 and 2016 respectively. . . There was also a credit of $121,116 into the account from 2014 to 2016 from Life Friend Plc. The payments were in four installments, of $30,279 each. These payments suggest the suspect has investments. . . A payment at $482,966 from Alicia Redemption Pro and shortly after, $800,000 was invested in SCB Investment subscription. We are in the process of verifying these transactions; . . Other suspicious transactions in the account arecredit of $19,764 from Pur of Noble and seven payments of $3,250, each amounting to $22,750 from Lloyds TSB. . . On the pound sterling (GBP), the investigative team discovered “a self- transfer of £40,268 into the account on May 31, 2016.” . . There were also self-deposits by the suspect of £49,760 from July 2015 to September, 2016, but the balance as at September 30, 2016 was £108,348.” . . All the transactions are being investigated whether or not they violated the “Revised Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
