First Bank Manager Bolts Away With N40billion Customers' Reversal Fund
The manager identified as Tijani Muiz Adeyinka heads the electronic product team of the bank. He is responsible for handling transfer reversals. The final decision on reversals laid with him alone, instead of a team.
According to findings, instead of ensuring reversals were done properly, he started diverting funds to a Zenith account owned by his wife.
Over two years, he managed to steal N40 billion, which he later scattered to 1,190 accounts while he also used some to buy crypto currency.
As at the time of filling this report, Adeyinka and his wife have vanished into the thin air.
The scam was, however, revealed when a customer insisted on resolving non-reversal of funds in his account.
The manger allegedly diverted those funds to 98 bank accounts classified as first beneficiaries, including his wife’s.
First Bank ank with a market capitalization of ₦829 billion, reported the incident to the Nigerian Police on March 25, 2024, and obtained multiple court orders to freeze accounts connected to the stolen funds.
Tijani Muiz Adeyinka, the manager behind the scandal, held a managerial position in the electronic products team at First Bank’s headquarters in Iganmu, Lagos.
Adeyinka who is now a fugitive, allegedly diverted approximately ₦40 billion (around $29 million) over two years.
He purportedly exploited his role to misappropriate funds by directing customer reversal requests to a merchant account under his control.
His ability to finalize transactions without additional approvals allowed the scheme to go unnoticed.
The fraud came to light following a customer complaint, prompting an internal review by the bank’s control unit, which uncovered numerous suspicious transactions.
In response, First Bank alerted the police and pursued legal measures to mitigate the financial loss.
First Bank took proactive steps by obtaining three court orders between April 4 and April 8, 2024, to freeze hundreds of accounts suspected of receiving the diverted funds.
Among the affected accounts were 98 classified as first beneficiaries, including one belonging to Adeyinka’s wife, as well as numerous second-tier accounts.
Court documents revealed that Adeyinka routed funds to his wife’s account at Zenith Bank, which then dispersed the money across 34 additional accounts. These accounts subsequently channeled the funds to 1,190 other accounts, creating a complex network of transactions to obscure the origin of the stolen funds.
“We hereby bring to your notice the discovery of fraudulent transactions into various transactions within and outside the bank and request your good offices to set up the machinery of investigation in place with a view to unravel the circumstances surrounding the said fraud and get the culprits apprehending to face the wrath of the law,” read a letter dated May 10, 2024, from First Bank to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police.
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