UK court orders Akingbola to refund N164b

THE High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, London, has found Dr. Erastus Akingbola, the erstwhile Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank), liable of unwholesome practices and criminal misappropriation of the bank's funds to the tune of N164 billion.In a ruling delivered in London yesterday in the case against Akingbola, Justice Burton ordered Akingbola to refund the sum of N164 billion being proceeds of unlawful share purchase scheme and fund misappropriation and converted it into personal use while at the helm of affairs as Managing Director of former Intercontinental Bank Plc.The court held that Akingbola devised and oversaw the implementation of the strategy to buy the bank's shares. The court found under cross-examination that Akingbola told obvious lies that he did not know that the bank was buying its own shares. It was discovered that shortly before the implementation of the strategy to increase the bank's share price with the intent of benefiting from the unethical and illegal scheme, Akingbola had borrowed N9.3 billion to purchase a large quantity of the bank's shares for himself. The court held that the illegal share purchase scheme substantially contributed to the collapse of the erstwhile Intercontinental Bank Plc.Further investigation by the court revealed that at a time the bank was undergoing significant liquidity strain, Akingbola misappropriated the sum of N16 billion, which was paid to Tropics Companies, a business company owned by his family to repay debts owed by the companies personally guaranteed by Akingbola.Akingbola was found to have misappropriated another 8.5 million, which was paid to his English solicitors to complete the purchase of luxury property in London in his name.
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