Chairman of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, says a female minister bought a $37.5 million property from a bank and deposited $20m in cash.
Bawa, who said this when speaking during a Channels Television programme, neither disclosed the identity of the person nor whether she is in the present cabinet.
The EFCC boss said real estate has become one with grand-scale corruption in the country.
“One of the problems we have in the country is real estate. 90 to 100 percent of the resources are being laundered through 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,” he said.
“We investigated a matter in which a bank MD marketed a property to a minister and she agreed to purchase it at $37.5m. The bank then sent a vehicle to her house to evacuate $20m in the first instance.
“The bank succeeded in putting 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 $20m from anyone. Without opportunity from the real sector, she could not have thought of where to launder the proceeds of crime.”
