A Nigerian businessman, Mohammed Gobir, has been arrested for allegedly fleecing an advertising agency of millions of dollars.
Mr. Gobir allegedly defrauded Afromedia, a popular Nigerian outdoor advertising agency, of the money in a scheme that started in 2008 when both parties met.
The mega heist fetched Mr. Gobir $3.5 million, N514 million, and 51,000 Pounds at various times, officials of the anti-graft agency, EFCC, believe.
Mr. Gobir, a 55–year-old father of two, was arrested by EFCC operatives in the early hours of Saturday at his Ikoyi residence and is still being interrogated at the Lagos office of the anti-graft agency as at press time.
The suspect allegedly defrauded the advertising company through a phony investment deal.
The suspect was allegedly introduced to Afromedia sometime in 2008 by their private placement consultants, Synergy Capital Advisory Limited as a high-net-worth investor who was willing to inject N1 billion into the company, through the acquisition of shares.
Based on his touted pedigree as potential investor, Mr. Gobir became close to the management and in no time became chairman of the Business Development Committee of the board of directors of the company, a position he would later use to his advantage.
Having earned the trust of the company owners, Mr. Gobir started demanding large sum of money which he termed business expenses to international consultants, Royal Exchange Burue in the United Kingdom, to facilitate and secure investments from his bank in the UK, NATWEST BANK LONDON, officials say.
The company reportedly gave Mr. Gobir $1 million in cash and also paid for his travel expenses on a first class return ticket to the UK where he would meet with the purported investors, which investigation later revealed never existed nor were the meetings ever held.
Once after the suspect had collected several sums of money and made several trips to the UK to meet with the purported investors, the Group Managing Director of Afromedia accompanied him to the UK for another round of meetings ostensibly to close the deal.
But as soon as they landed in the UK, Mr. Gobir made a telephone call in which his travel companion overheard him scream aloud, saying his asset were seized by UK anti-money laundering authorities. He even showed the GMD an email sent to him for the alleged seizure.
The suspect confessed to the MD of Afromedia that his money ($250 million) was seized by the British Authorities five years earlier over allegations of money laundering and that he was currently financially handicapped and needed a bailout of $3.8 million to get the European Union Money Laundering Waiver Certificate.
The suspect later presented a “waiver certificate” to the company and promised to pay them all the monies he had collected.
Up till the time of his arrest, the suspect had not refunded any money to Afromedia.
The EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, who confirmed the arrest, said the agency was still investigating the matter.
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