Ghost pension fraud blocked by bank official
A photo to show how the fraudsters stash away money into fake accounts. photo | nmg
What you need to know:
- According to audio recordings accessed by Sunday Monitor, the fraudsters reveal how they were directed to contact one Levi Malinga, the relationship manager for executive banking, to assist them in withdrawing the money.
Kampala, Sunday. Stanbic Bank has bust an inside fraud syndicate in which the schemers attempted to siphon at least Sh8.6 billion of pension money stashed away on fake accounts in the bank.
Sunday Monitor has established that government officials handling pension money collude with some bank officials to open several accounts through which money is deposited as payment to pensioners who actually do not exist, commonly known as “ghosts.”
In the Stanbic Bank case, the email trail among bank staff, copies of which Sunday Monitor has seen, shows that the fraudsters succeeded in withdrawing some money in other branches before the bank blocked the accounts.
The fraud scheme was discovered after one of the bank employees, who had been approached by the fraudsters to facilitate the withdrawal of the money, blew the whistle at Ntinda branch of the bank.
A staff, who blew the whistle, says in an email to the Stanbic bank Chief Executive Philip Odera, that there were more than 200 suspicious accounts through which the fraudsters had intended to steal at least Shs8.6 billion public funds deposited as money for pensioners.
After the arrest of one of the suspects who had gone to withdraw the money at the Ntinda outlet, the Branch Manager, Ms Josephine Nalumansi Kasozi, wrote to the bank headquarters and alerted them of the scam.
“There is a fraudster who has been arrested at Ntinda branch. He attempted to withdraw Sh25 million using a deposit slip on a/c-9030001862587 for account name N ORWOTHO. This is a dollar account with a balance of about $25,000. The home branch is Garden City. More details will be availed by the security officer copied herein,” reads Ms Nalumansi’s email to Mr Arthur Kiwanuka, at Stanbic Bank headquarters in Kampala.
She received a response from another bank official, Mr Frank Kiiza, who said: “Hi Josephine, Clayton in copy of this mail is running with the case and will provide the required details. Thank you.”
Bank sources said although the fraudsters were handed over to police, the bank never followed up the case. The bank’s risk specialist who handled the matter left under unclear circumstances.
Mr Odera declined to comment on the matter when Sunday Monitor contacted him. He referred us to Mr Fred Mugisha, the bank’s spokesperson whom he said would brief him later.
Mr Mugisha feigned ignorance of the matter.
“What you are telling me is news. We do not have such accounts; those are allegations from a whistleblower,” Mr Mugisha said. (NMG)
