A businessman named Minnis Howard has been charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for an alleged fraud amounting to N822,422,260.
Howard, along with his company, Howard Minnis Asset Management Limited, faced charges before the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja on Wednesday.
In the two counts filed against him by the EFCC, he stands accused of obtaining money through false pretense and engaging in dishonest conversion.
According to the prosecuting counsel for the EFCC, Mohammed Bashir, Howard and his company allegedly committed these offenses in the year 2023.
Bashir accused the defendants of fraudulently acquiring N1,030,972,266 from Krystal Lube Limited and converting N822,422,260 of that sum for their personal use.
According to the prosecutor, the defendants obtained the money “by falsely representing that the money represented the purchase of 900,000 litres of SN 900 Base Oil and 500,000 litres of SN 500 Base Oil at the rate of N970 per litre, a representation you knew to be false.”
The anti-graft agency stated that the offenses violated Sections 1 (3) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act 2006 and Section 285 (1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.
Despite being arraigned before Justice Rahman Oshodi, the defendant and his company entered a plea of not guilty to the charges.
The judge adjourned the proceedings until November 30 to consider Howard’s bail application and ordered that he be remanded in the custody of the EFCC until then.
