Two customers of Alpha Morgan Bank defrauded of N230m through system glitch

Two customers ,Alpha Morgan Bank , N230m , System glitch,

 

 

Akin Kuponiyi

In a bid to salvage the sum of N230,978,536 alleged to have been fraudulently taken from the accounts of two of their customers, Alpha Morgan Bank Limited, alongside the two customers, NEM Insurance Plc and Extension Publications Limited, has dragged 19 financial institutions before a Federal High Court in Lagos.

According to an affidavit sworn to by a litigation officer, Mr. Dayo Abe, in the law firm of Babafemi Akinsete & Co., and filed before the court by Lagos lawyer Barrister Babafemi Akinsete, the deponent avers thus:

That following a system glitch in Alpha Morgan Bank’s system, some service merchant agents of the bank, carrying on business as digital financial services agents with accounts domiciled in several financial institutions, including those listed before the court, took advantage of the glitch and unlawfully initiated multiple transfers from the accounts of NEM Insurance Plc and Extension Publications Limited into various accounts domiciled in the financial institutions listed before the court.

Upon realising the glitch, further investigations were carried out by the bank, and it was discovered that a total sum of N230,978,536 (Two Hundred and Thirty Million, Nine Hundred and Seventy-Eight Thousand, Five Hundred and Thirty-Six Naira) had been illegally transferred from the accounts of NEM Insurance Plc and Extension Publications Limited maintained with Alpha Morgan Bank into the various accounts domiciled in the financial institutions listed before the court.

Upon its immediate complaint to the financial institutions listed before the court about its findings, the defendants placed a temporary “no debit” freeze on the accounts.

Further to the above, the perpetrators of this humongous fraud illicitly transferred the said funds received in their accounts from Alpha Morgan Bank into their other respective accounts domiciled with the same or other banks/financial institutions. Unless all their accounts listed and others linked to their respective BVNs are blocked or placed on “post-no-debit”, they will continue to unlawfully dissipate the funds using other accounts linked to their BVNs.

If all the accounts listed before the court and others linked to the BVN of the perpetrators of this fraud are not urgently blocked or placed on no-debit restrictions, and the salvaged amounts unlawfully obtained reversed, they will continue in their spending spree and further dissipation of monies belonging to investors and shareholders of the bank.

The plaintiffs have been greatly affected by the resultant effect of the system glitch and the fraud it occasioned, and unless this application is granted, the plaintiffs will be subjected to further hardship and dire financial loss.

Consequently, the plaintiffs urged the court to issue an order against the 19 financial institutions listed before the court to reverse and pay to Alpha Morgan Bank Plc all sums wrongfully, illegally, and illicitly debited from the plaintiffs’ settlement/collection account and illegally transferred into the defendants’ various customers’ bank accounts to the amounts listed before the court.