The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa has said real estate is one of the biggest ways through which money is laundered in Nigeria.
He supported his argument based on how a Minister of the federal republic of Nigeria connived with the Managing Director of an unnamed bank to launder about $37m through the real estate sector.
Bawa who featured on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Tuesday, said about 90 to 100 percent of resources are being laundered through the real estate sector.
He narrated how the EFCC investigated a female minister, who he said, bought $37.5 million property from a bank and deposited $20 million in cash.
Mr. Bawa, however, did not mention the name of the minister.
The EFCC chairman said:
“One of the problems we have in the country is the real estate. 90 to 100 percent of the resources are being laundered through the real estate. Of course, they are being regulated but they are not enough in terms of how they give their returns to the Special Control Unit.”
“We investigated a matter in which a bank MD marketed a property to a minister and agreed to purchase it at $37.5million. The bank then sent a vehicle to her house to evacuate $20million from her house in the first instance.
“The bank succeeded to put it in their system and paid the developer and then a lawyer set up a special purpose vehicle where the title documents were transferred into and of course, he is posing as the owner of the house.
“Without the help of the banker, the minister couldn’t have imagined collecting $20million from anyone with opportunity from the real sector; she could not have thought of where to launder the proceeds of crime,” Bawa added.
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