CBN sacks staff involved in N8bn currency fraud

The Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, Monday, said it had dismissed six
officials that were involved in the N8bn currency fraud in some of its
branches.
In a statement by the CBN Director, Corporate Communications
Department, Ibrahim Mu’azu, said that some of the middle-level
officers among the accused had been summarily dismissed or
placed on indefinite suspension, depending on gravity of their
offence.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria will like to inform the general public of
the chronology of events that led the Management of the CBN to
hand over some unscrupulous staff to the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission for prosecution.
“During a routine internal audit of the Bank’s Cash Destruction
activities in September 2014, the CBN Briquetting Panel, comprising
senior bank staff from different branches, noticed some anomalies
at the Ibadan Branch, and immediately reported this to the bank’s
management.
“On further investigation ordered by the Governor, it was discovered
that a systematic scheme, which has been on for several years, was
being run in which mutilated higher denomination notes, originally
meant for destruction, were swapped with lower denomination
currencies.
“This practice, known as interleafing, basically labels a box with a
higher value than its true content.
“As soon as the Bank’s internal investigations concluded beyond
reasonable doubt that some wrongdoing had occurred, the affected
members of staff, who are middle-level officers were, depending on
gravity of offence, either summarily dismissed or immediately
placed on indefinite suspension on October 21, 2014, and all handed
over to the EFCC for further investigation and prosecution”