Minister laundered $37m through property deal, EFCC chairman disclosed

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has said that the Real Estate sector is one with grand scale corruption in the country, even as revealed that about 90 to 100 per cent of resources are being laundered through the sector.

Bawa stated this while featuring on Sunrise Daily, a current affairs programme, on Channels Television on Tuesday.

He said the commission investigated a female minister, who he said, bought $37.5m property from a bank and deposited $20m cash.

Bawa, who is marking his 100 days in office, did not however disclose the identity of the suspect or whether she is a current or former minister.

He said, “One of the problems we have in the country is the real estate. Ninety to 100 per cent of the resources are being laundered through the 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.

“We investigated a matter in which a bank MD marketed a property to a minister and agreed to purchase it at $37.5m. The bank then sent a vehicle to her house to evacuate $20m from her house in the first instance.

“The bank succeeded to put 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 with opportunity from the real sector; she could not have thought of where to launder the proceeds of crime.”